The recent abstract paintings of Will Barnet (who turned 99 this year) were the focus of this exhibition, and it was a gem. A departure from the artist’s signature style in which figuration predominates, the 16 midsize oils on canvas from 2003 to 2010 mark a return to his early investigations into abstraction. Barnet seeks to render the invisible visible but wants his imagery to remain rooted in the physical world. When he started his abstractions in the mid-’40s, Native American art showed him the way, particularly Hopi ceramics from Four Mile Ruin, a prehistoric site in northeastern Arizona. He was inspired by the use of simple flat shapes to depict birds, fish and animals, which in turn symbolize forces of nature, such as rain and lightning. In the canvases at Alexandre, Barnet’s own stripped-down object-symbols resonated with a power and precision that could withstand comparison to the Hopi’s distillations of their world.
Characterized by subtle color harmonies and flat, finely honed biomorphic and geometric forms, Barnet’s compositions have an air of quiet poise that belies their inner dynamism. In Call It Winter (2003, 34 by 26 inches), a creamy white background underpainted with a salmon hue glows with the promise of spring, lending warmth to a mostly cool palette of olive green, black and pastel blue scumbled over grays. A dark brown ovoid angles toward a cactuslike shape with swelling protuberances, furthering the vernal association.
The bipartite Overview (2005, 40 by 28 inches) calls to mind a children’s playground. The upper two-thirds of the picture suggest an aerial view; a straight-on perspective governs the bottom third. Though close in value, different ground colors separate the sections: a soft green brushed over sanguine above, a raw sienna below. Across the latter, interconnected shapes in grayish-blue, pale yellow and red ocher convey the image of a figure on a slide. In the upper section, flattened organic forms enclosed within larger shapes suggest figures balancing on a seesaw or walking up a hill. Even more pared down is Inauguration (2009, 323⁄8 inches square), in which two black silhouettes stretch across the surface like painted images inside a Hopi bowl. Is the spectral lower figure about to surmount a barrier before it, or is it flying away? Is the bloodred disk limned in black flapping its uneven appendages triumphantly or struggling to resist gravity? Perhaps the picture represents a spirit rising above death’s reach, a mixed message both ominous and hopeful.
Photo: Will Barnet: Call It Winter, 2003, oil on canvas, 34 by 26 inches; at Alexandre.