Will Barnet: A Timeless World

Painter and printmaker Will Barnet has actively participated in the New York art world for nearly 70 years. A leading figure in the Indian Space painting movement of the late 1940s, Barnet stressed the spatial structures of Northwest Coast Indian art. Throughout the 1950s and into the 1960s, he made a series of hard-edged, totemic abstractions markded by their all-positive space, which he described as austere, classical expressions of Indian culture. He then moved on to new art forms in the 1960s and 1970s, creating a series of family and art world portraits that achieved a remarkable balance between the formal demands of abstraction and the humanist aspects of the representation. This book unifies Barnet’s prodigious output. Art historian Gail Stavitsky provides an overview of the artist’s career. Also explored is the relationship of Barnet’s work to the Native American artistic tradition and the impact of New England upon the artist and his work.