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.

The Baldwin Gallery also presents a show by internationally-acclaimed photographer Robert Mapplethorpe entitled “Horses” — works that have never been seen before as a group. The horse photos were commissioned in the mid-80s by a major Mapplethorpe collector who owned a large horse breeding farm. Though unusual subject matter for Mapplethorpe, his sensitivity to the voluptuous beauty of the natural world as seen in his well-known flower portraits, and his studies exploring the austere beauty of powerful musculature, provide a clear visual connection between the Horses group and Mapplethorpe’s better-known work. The core photos will be supplemented for the exhibition with Mapplethorpe photos and Polaroids showcasing the beauty and spirit of the American West. Serene and classical, Mapplethorpe’s horse photographs are balanced compositions of perfect stillness that reveal precisely detailed tonal nuances in the beautifully and structurally muscled horses. The natural elegance of the subject, combined with Mapplethorpe’s exquisite eye for light, form and shadow are an ideal connection with both Aspen’s ranching heritage and exceptional sophistication.

Famous for his celebrity portraits, fashion images and striking figural compositions, Mapplethorpe was also known for his sometimes controversial subject matter. Always, he was concerned with formal beauty and the intrinsic integrity of individual objects. Robert Mapplethorpe was born in 1946. Following a childhood on Long Island, he received a B.F.A. from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. He died of AIDS in 1989 at the age of 42.

Images are available upon request. Please call 970.920.9797 for further information.