NYC, Solo Show 2002

Islip,NY 2001

Inner Child

Think back, if you can, to the time when you were around eight years old or younger. The time of your life before you became self-conscious, when everything seemed new and exciting–a time when the world inspired endless curiosity and enthusiasm. This exhibition seeks to portray that state of mind in two ways: through the work of artists who use raw materials in uninhibited fashion, and through work which uses images to recall childhood. Artists in the former category include Susan Mastrangelo who uses newspaper, glue, plaster and paint to create a rogues gallery of female character heads; Michael Ballou who makes ingenious and hilarious assemblages from toy plastic animals and soldiers; Barry Bartlett with his large clay sculptures of toys, Gail Robinson who creates monoprints of and by fuzzy unstuffed animals, and Arnold Zimmerman who makes large scale ceramic sculpture which reprise a time before maturity. None of the artists are self-consciously emulating their eight-year-old selves, yet that they have created work that is infectious with whimsy as well as being darkly humorous. Their approach to materials has a pure unrefined enthusiasm.

The second group of artists in the exhibition create work that looks back on childhood. The oil painting of Elisabeth Condon reflects her remembrance of growing up in a partially dysfunctional family. The iris prints by Ann Chwatsky are based on her remembrances of her doubts and fears growing up as a girl. The drawings on canvas by Jenny Scobellook back to the problematic and terrifying time of adolescence.

BARRY BARTLETT’s sculpture also has a whimsical childlike quality while dealing with darker psychological subjects. His approach to clay is immediate and unmediated by refinement.  Bartlett’s method is to press slabs of clay around toys that creates a very rough interpretation of the toy. The underlying theme in the work is an attempt to conflate the space between reality and fantasy. He says, “I’ll often use imagery derived from stuffed toy figures or animals as a starting point from which to make narrative scenarios describing evolution, violence and destruction.” In light of the recent tragedy in New York and Washington, DC, and calls for an impending war, his work titled March is very apt.  A group of large monochromatic action figures march down a severely raked ramp. Each gray glazed figure holds a luster glazed weapon. “I intended for the figures to feel like they were on the inevitable move towards what might be a violent end.” In Drift, five penguins lie on their backs; although humorous they are also ambiguous. We cannot tell if they are frolicking on their backs or dead. They represent perfect examples of Bartlett’s black and white humor.

Purchase NY, 1999

NewYork Times Review

The sinister aspect of work by Zimmerman contrasts with the fairy-tale like quality of tableaux by Barry Bartlett. This artist relates units placed on the floor with the purpose of creating what the artist has called a “dialogue.” He has also written about his “non-linear” intention that allows viewers, in turn, to develop their own relationships with the work. Partially, his absorption with figuration has been influenced by the vignettes present in Staffordshire china.

In the 1990s, Bartlett has consistently dealt with shapes that are abstract yet suggestive of a representational motif. At times these have been juxtaposed as a pair, trio or cluster. Using terra cotta, Bartlett fashions shapes that are largely abstract with subtle indications of an animal, figure or flower. The form is covered with glaze, adding a color, a shiny surface texture and the possibility of light reflections highlighting certain parts.

Generally, the shapes are blob-like; that is, there are softened con- tours and attention paid to overall configuration rather than specifications. They seem melted, as though heat had made one area soften and dissolve into another. Bartlett’s avoidance of individualizing detail maximizes the abstract presence and spirit of each body.

His use of multiple parts spread over the floor emerged last year with a piece that consisted of thirty figures set atop plinths arranged in square. Each unit was monochromatic so that the general effect was one of a chessboard covered with brightly colored “men.” There was also the sensation of an unruly crowd, as figures shifted and appeared to move in aggressive relationships to one another. This work, called Action/Reaction (1998)influenced the multiple unit concept of the two pieces in this exibition.

Drift (1999), consists of five “penguins” lying on their backs on a blue latex patch. The latter represents a watery, probably icy expanse. The amorphic-Iooking birds are set on a horizontal plane seemingly adrift. The environment he creates, connected as it is to surrounding space, allows viewers to become directly involved with the scene. This type of presentation might be compared to “theater-in-the-round,” wherein an audience is offered the familiarity of approximate engagement with performers.

With this exhibition, Bartlett has moved from arranging his entire

work parallel to the floor to the addition of a vertical emphasis. Landscape (1999) has a lyrical, fairy-tale like quality. It consists of clay units representing a bear, a tree trunk, brick, log and clapboard houses, and flowers placed on a green plane. Multi-colored snakes range up a wall. The artist thinks of this work as a kind of “psychological landscape,” intended to pique viewers’ imaginative associations. The variety of imagery executed in about the same size has particular references-the bear with the wilderness, houses with shelter, and flowers with domesticity. This grouping, as it is flat and colored, bears a relationship with painting, while the artist’s arrangement of parts might be compared to sculpture or paint- ing. There is a folk art element in the simple, direct delineation of objects

as well as a meaning seemingly flavored by folklore.

The work of each of these artists extends the possibilities inherent in the clay medium as it is able to give life to concept. In the case of Peter Gourfain, there is an actualization of personal beliefs; Arnie Zimmerman manifests a moral significance; and Barry Bartlett embodies a romantic, open-ended story. These artists invest clay bodies with human nature as well as form.

Judy Collischan, Ph.D.

Associate Director for Curatorial Affairs

NYC, Solo Show 1998

]]> http://www.barrytbartlett.com/?feed=rss2&p=28 0