Press release
The Baldwin Gallery is pleased to present a retrospective of works on plates by acclaimed contemporary artist Jennifer Bartlett. This primary focus of the exhibition is a new work entitled “Recitative” which is comprised of 372 steel plates, measures an impressive 11' 2" tall by 158' 3" wide, and spans the entire upstairs of the gallery. The work mainly focuses on color theory — in particular, exploring primary, secondary, and tertiary color groups, as well as tonalities, through painted circles and lines on gridded plates in columns of varying sizes. The last section of the work is a contrasting set of plates that are white with an irregular black line throughout. This section has plates set at random angles to form a black squiggle line, contrasting the straight columns of all of the previous plates that are all 1-1/2 inches apart. The result is an awe-inspiring display of visual tact that strongly relates to her attachment to landscape drawing. The show continues with some smaller steel plate works that feature houses and relate to her well known pastel drawings and paintings of structures and landscapes. Bartlett’s show is a beautiful display of color theory, structural grids, irregular circles, lines, and brushstrokes, and drips of vibrant paint.
Jennifer Bartlett was born in 1941 in Long Beach, California. She received her M.F.A. from Yale in 1965. She has exhibited her work in some of the most prestigious exhibitions of our time including the Venice and Paris Biennials, and the Whitney Biennial Exhibitions. Her works are widely collected privately and by museums throughout the world. She has had major solo exhibitions at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Baltimore Museum of Art; Albright Knox Gallery, Buffalo; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; Museum of Art, Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh; The Brooklyn Museum; Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City; The Cleveland Museum of Art; and the Milwaukee Museum of Art.
Images are available upon request. Please call 970.920.9797 for further information.
