Barton led a peripatetic life, often traveling and otherwise staying in rented rooms in San Francisco and the bohemian enclave of Sausalito. No feature of these modest spaces escaped his observation. He lavished as much care on representations of light sockets and bedsprings as he did on portrayals of human figures. At times he focused on just a few details, but often he corralled crowded interiors into complex, fractured compositions. He compared himself to a spider spinning its web. Like the French artist Henri Matisse (1869–1954), Barton depicted his own earlier works within new drawings. He also frequently inserted himself engaged in the act of drawing into his compositions, underscoring the sense of an interior world consumed by art.
Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.
Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.