Swimmers and Rafts, Rain
Date1979
Maker
Jennifer Bartlett
American, 1941 - 2022
Label TextPart of a larger series of “swimmers” that Jennifer Bartlett began in 1978, this work consists of two painted panels depicting floating rafts in falling rain, flanked by two grids of enamel plates. The flesh-colored elliptical shapes that appear in each segment seem animated: they form a circle on the left like a school of koi in a pond, they float like clouds or lily pads behind the rafts at center, and are sailing like rockets through the grid on the right.
The composition is laden with references to art history and to the ways in which painters have created the illusion of space. As a visual device for perspective drawing, the grid was a popular tool for Renaissance artists to create the appearance of three-dimensional space. In the late 19th century, the French Impressionists began to flatten space again and asked new questions about composition in painting at the dawn of the 20th century. Bartlett holds the entire range of possibilities in balance at a time when Minimal art was emerging and painting had to reinvent itself yet again.
Object number2014.25.7
Provenance[Paula Cooper Gallery, New York, New York]; purchased from gallery by Virginia and Bagley Wright, Seattle, Washington, Nov. 20, 1979
Exhibition HistorySeattle, Washington, National Gallery, The Bon Marché, From Northwest Collections, Sept. 11 - 19, 1981.
Seattle, Washington, Wright Exhibition Space, Big is Better (or Some Claim), unknown start date - Mar. 6, 2010.Published ReferencesGoldwater, Marge. Jennifer Bartlett. Minneapolis: Walker Art Center; New York: Abbeville Press, 1985; reproduced p. 60 [not in exhibition].Credit LineGift of the Virginia and Bagley Wright Collection, in honor of the 75th Anniversary of the Seattle Art Museum
DimensionsOverall 64 x 250 in. (162.6 x 635 cm)
MediumBaked enamel and silkscreen grid, enamel on steel plates; oil on canvas
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