Skip to content
Will Barnet - Love Letters - Exhibitions - Alexandre Gallery

Will Barnet: Love Letters Installation View

The gallery is pleased to present Will Barnet Love Letters, an exhibition of paintings and drawings from 1955 to 1990 focused on the artist’s wife Elena as subject and muse. The show includes seven major paintings dating from 1955 to 2005 and related works on paper. It is accompanied by an illustrated on-line catalogue with introduction by Chris Crosman and text by John Yau.

When Will Barnet (American, 1911 – 2012) met Elena Ciurlys in 1953 it changed his life and his art. Already a well-established presence in the New York art world, Barnet’s fascination with theory, abstraction and the modernist avant-garde suddenly receded in favor of a renewed interest in figuration. Through drawings and painting of his new subject and love, Barnet developed his iconic style of defining the figure through semi-abstract simplified flat, hard-edged forms and minimal naturalistic detail – beautifully balanced and classically structured. This show, gathered from the family’s private collection, features a little remarked upon or noticed aspect of Barnet’s work: its fundamental attention to the importance of human and, especially his most intimate personal relationships. As a body of work, this exhibition celebrates that long, enduring embrace, one captured in the classic beauty, stillness and grace of Elena’s constant presence, of those numinous relationships where line and form reify lives closely lived with tender regard.

Writing on Barnet’s work, the noted critic and poet John Yau says: “Barnet’s synthesis of humanist warmth and precise form attains its clearest expression in the figural paintings he did from the mid-1960s until just before the end of his life, when he returned to abstraction.” Yau continues: “It is not an exaggeration to state that Barnet’s paintings of his second wife, Elena – Double Portrait of Elena (1980s), Elena (1981), and Now and Then (1989) – constitute one of the high points of American art in the 1980s, a decade when slathering paint and showmanship had become the rage. Barnet’s portraits instead embody a quiet rebuke to excess and hyperbole.”

Installations

Installations Thumbnails
Will Barnet
Will Barnet
Will Barnet
Will Barnet
Will Barnet
Will Barnet
Will Barnet
Will Barnet
Will Barnet
Will Barnet
Will Barnet
Will Barnet
Will Barnet
Will Barnet
Will Barnet
Will Barnet

Selected Works

Selected Works Thumbnails
Anticipation II, 2005, oil on canvas, 50 x 27 inches

Anticipation II, 2005, oil on canvas, 50 x 27 inches

Inquire
Study for Early Morning, graphite and watercolor on vellum, 15 1/2 x 15 inches

Study for Early Morning, graphite and watercolor on vellum, 15 1/2 x 15 inches

Inquire
Evening, Beverly Harbor, 1972, pastel on paper, 14 3/4 x 12 inches

Evening, Beverly Harbor, 1972, pastel on paper, 14 3/4 x 12 inches

Inquire
Portrait of Elena, 1955, oil on canvas, 24 x 20 inches

Portrait of Elena, 1955, oil on canvas, 24 x 20 inches

Inquire
Early Study of Elena, graphite and watercolor on paper, 7 x 5 inches

Early Study of Elena, graphite and watercolor on paper, 7 x 5 inches

Inquire
Early Study of Elena I, pencil on paper, 6 3/8 x 5 inches

Early Study of Elena I, pencil on paper, 6 3/8 x 5 inches

Inquire
Elena at Rest, pencil on paper, 6 3/8 x 5 inches

Elena at Rest, pencil on paper, 6 3/8 x 5 inches

Inquire
Early Study of Elena 2, graphite and watercolor on paper, 7 x 5 inches

Early Study of Elena 2, graphite and watercolor on paper, 7 x 5 inches

Inquire
Study of Elena with Ball, graphite on vellum, 20 3/4 x 18 3/4 inches

Study of Elena with Ball, graphite on vellum, 20 3/4 x 18 3/4 inches

Inquire
Double - Portrait Elena, 1980s, oil on canvas, 39 1/2 x 39 1/2 inches

Double - Portrait Elena, 1980s, oil on canvas, 39 1/2 x 39 1/2 inches

Inquire
Study for Elena in White, graphite on vellum, 24 x 19 inches

Study for Elena in White, graphite on vellum, 24 x 19 inches

Inquire
Elena, 1981, oil on canvas, 38 x 34 inches

Elena, 1981, oil on canvas, 38 x 34 inches

Inquire
Study for Memory, 1970, graphite on vellum, 32 1/2 x 28 inches

Study for Memory, 1970, graphite on vellum, 32 1/2 x 28 inches

Inquire
Now and Then, 1989, oil on canvas, 53 1/4 x 45 inches

Now and Then, 1989, oil on canvas, 53 1/4 x 45 inches

Inquire
Study of Elena Reclining, graphite on vellum, 16 x 19 inches

Study of Elena Reclining, graphite on vellum, 16 x 19 inches

Inquire
The Cigar, 1998-99, oil on canvas, 30 1/8 x 45 inches

The Cigar, 1998-99, oil on canvas, 30 1/8 x 45 inches

Inquire
Woman Reading, 1965, pencil on paper, 11 x 8 1/2 inches

Woman Reading, 1965, pencil on paper, 11 x 8 1/2 inches

Inquire
Elena with Cat, graphite on vellum, 11 x 8 1/2 inches

Elena with Cat, graphite on vellum, 11 x 8 1/2 inches

Inquire
Three Generations, 1990, oil on canvas, 54 3/4 x 54 inches

Three Generations, 1990, oil on canvas, 54 3/4 x 54 inches

Inquire
Untitled (Mother and Child), 1960, graphite on paper, 6 1/4 x 5 1/2 inches

Untitled (Mother and Child), 1960, graphite on paper, 6 1/4 x 5 1/2 inches

Inquire
Untitled (Mother and Child), 1960, watercolor and graphite on paper, 6 1/4 x 5 1/2 inches

Untitled (Mother and Child), 1960, watercolor and graphite on paper, 6 1/4 x 5 1/2 inches

Inquire
Anticipation II, 2005, oil on canvas, 50 x 27 inches

Anticipation II, 2005, oil on canvas, 50 x 27 inches

Study for Early Morning, graphite and watercolor on vellum, 15 1/2 x 15 inches

Study for Early Morning, graphite and watercolor on vellum, 15 1/2 x 15 inches

Evening, Beverly Harbor, 1972, pastel on paper, 14 3/4 x 12 inches

Evening, Beverly Harbor, 1972, pastel on paper, 14 3/4 x 12 inches

Portrait of Elena, 1955, oil on canvas, 24 x 20 inches

Portrait of Elena, 1955, oil on canvas, 24 x 20 inches

Early Study of Elena, graphite and watercolor on paper, 7 x 5 inches

Early Study of Elena, graphite and watercolor on paper, 7 x 5 inches

Early Study of Elena I, pencil on paper, 6 3/8 x 5 inches

Early Study of Elena I, pencil on paper, 6 3/8 x 5 inches

Elena at Rest, pencil on paper, 6 3/8 x 5 inches

Elena at Rest, pencil on paper, 6 3/8 x 5 inches

Early Study of Elena 2, graphite and watercolor on paper, 7 x 5 inches

Early Study of Elena 2, graphite and watercolor on paper, 7 x 5 inches

Study of Elena with Ball, graphite on vellum, 20 3/4 x 18 3/4 inches

Study of Elena with Ball, graphite on vellum, 20 3/4 x 18 3/4 inches

Double - Portrait Elena, 1980s, oil on canvas, 39 1/2 x 39 1/2 inches

Double - Portrait Elena, 1980s, oil on canvas, 39 1/2 x 39 1/2 inches

Study for Elena in White, graphite on vellum, 24 x 19 inches

Study for Elena in White, graphite on vellum, 24 x 19 inches

Elena, 1981, oil on canvas, 38 x 34 inches

Elena, 1981, oil on canvas, 38 x 34 inches

Study for Memory, 1970, graphite on vellum, 32 1/2 x 28 inches

Study for Memory, 1970, graphite on vellum, 32 1/2 x 28 inches

Now and Then, 1989, oil on canvas, 53 1/4 x 45 inches

Now and Then, 1989, oil on canvas, 53 1/4 x 45 inches

Study of Elena Reclining, graphite on vellum, 16 x 19 inches

Study of Elena Reclining, graphite on vellum, 16 x 19 inches

The Cigar, 1998-99, oil on canvas, 30 1/8 x 45 inches

The Cigar, 1998-99, oil on canvas, 30 1/8 x 45 inches

Woman Reading, 1965, pencil on paper, 11 x 8 1/2 inches

Woman Reading, 1965, pencil on paper, 11 x 8 1/2 inches

Elena with Cat, graphite on vellum, 11 x 8 1/2 inches

Elena with Cat, graphite on vellum, 11 x 8 1/2 inches

Three Generations, 1990, oil on canvas, 54 3/4 x 54 inches

Three Generations, 1990, oil on canvas, 54 3/4 x 54 inches

Untitled (Mother and Child), 1960, graphite on paper, 6 1/4 x 5 1/2 inches

Untitled (Mother and Child), 1960, graphite on paper, 6 1/4 x 5 1/2 inches

Untitled (Mother and Child), 1960, watercolor and graphite on paper, 6 1/4 x 5 1/2 inches

Untitled (Mother and Child), 1960, watercolor and graphite on paper, 6 1/4 x 5 1/2 inches