Blue Bicycle 1979

Will Barnet made this painting, Blue Bicycle, and you can see that he’s used a very limited palette with hard, clear edges, which flattens the space and makes it feel like a dream. The surface is smooth, like a well-loved children’s book, with thin, even layers of paint, which gives it a clean, almost graphic feel. It reminds me of those old travel posters, you know? Everything is simplified and idealized. The color is applied in these flat blocks, creating crisp divisions between the forms, which makes you see the bare minimum. Look at the spokes of the bicycle wheel, they're so evenly spaced and precise, but they don't quite convince you that the bike could work. It's like a memory of a bicycle, or a symbol of one, rather than a real, functional object. This feels like a close cousin to Alex Katz, who also sought to capture the essence of things with an economy of means. Art like this makes me think about what we choose to include and what we leave out when we're trying to capture an idea.