Will Barnet, 1911 ~ Abstract painter American painter and printmaker Will Barnet has lived through every major artistic school in modern American art. He can remember watching John Singer Sergent paint murals on the ceiling of the Boston Public Library in the 1920s, and being the printmaker in New York for Mexican muralist José Clemente Orozco. He remembers the explosion of Abstract Expressionism that would come to define the so-called New York School of artists. As a printmaker and art teacher at the Art Students League for 45 years, Barnet, who will turn 100 in May, taught the likes of Eva Hesse, Cy Twombly and Mark Rothko. But just as he did when he came to New York as a 19-year-old nobody, Will Barnet paints in his studio at the National Arts Club in Manhattan every day. His son, artist Peter Barnet, 72, of Maplewood, continues his fathers tradition of teaching by heading the painting department at Montclair State University. Will Barnet has had one of the longest and most distinguished careers in the history of American art. His exceptional body of paintings and drawings and his original style, are recognized around the world. His work has entered virtually every major museum in the United States including: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The National Gallery of Art, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, The Whitney Museum of American Art, and The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Abroad he is represented in the collections of The British Museum, The Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, and The Vatican Museum. There have been innumerable critical studies of his works in books, catalogues, and magazine articles. Barnet has been the recipient of numerous awards including the first Artists Lifetime Achievement Award Medal given on the occasion of the National Academy of Design’s 175th anniversary, the College Art Association’s Lifetime Achievement Award, the Philadelphia Academy of Fine Art’s Lippincott Prize, and the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters’ Childe Hassam Prize. He is an elected member of the National Academy of Design, The Century Association, and the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Barnet has defined an artistic career that, in the words of Robert Doty, “has always gone beyond the limitations of modern art because his work affirms a faith in life”, Barnet was awarded the 2011 National Medal of Arts by President Barack Obama. In 2012, France conferred the insignia of Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters on Will Barnet.
Posted on: Wed, 14 Jan 2015 22:02:20 +0000
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