Will Barnet

Will Barnet
1911-2012
Untitled
ca. 1956
Watercolor on paper.
6 3/8 x 12 inches (162 x 305 mm)
Gift of Will and Elena Barnet, 2009.
© Will Barnet / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
2009.388
Notes:
Will Barnet's career has spanned nearly eight decades during which he successively embraced different styles, abstract and figurative. The five drawings recently donated to the Morgan by the artist provide a survey of his evolution. The three earliest works, from the 1940s and 50s reflect Barnet's involvement with the so-called Indian Space Painters, a group of artists who set out to create a specifically American abstract style by looking for inspiration in Native American art. Fond of using found paper as a support, Barnet created one of these pictographic compositions over and around the lettering of a 1956 charity ball program for the fundraising arm of a black civil rights organization.
Provenance:
Will and Elena Barnet.
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