Swimmers and Rafts, Rain
1979
Part 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.
Baked enamel and silkscreen grid, enamel on steel plates; oil on canvas
Overall 64 x 250 in. (162.6 x 635cm)
Gift of the Virginia and Bagley Wright Collection, in honor of the 75th Anniversary of the Seattle Art Museum
2014.25.7
Provenance: [Paula Cooper Gallery, New York, New York]; purchased from gallery by Virginia and Bagley Wright, Seattle, Washington, Nov. 20, 1979
