Province by the Sea 1959

Curator: Ah, the dance of form and color! We’re looking at Will Barnet's "Province by the Sea," a mixed-media print from 1959. What jumps out at you? Editor: Well, there's an undeniable tension here, isn’t there? A stillness, but one pregnant with unspoken possibilities. It’s like the quiet before a storm, rendered in shape and shadow. Curator: Precisely. Barnet's strength lies in orchestrating these subtle balances. The composition, though abstract, evokes a sense of place—a coastal landscape maybe, flattened and reconfigured through geometric lenses. The color palette too... it is not realistic! Editor: I think it hints more than describes. Notice how those horizontal bands, a deep indigo crossed by an orange one, could easily become a simplified seascape, and the arrangement suggests horizon lines. But look how those biomorphic shapes, in shades of coral, disrupt that reading, injecting a note of playful ambiguity. Curator: Barnet was a master of suggestion, walking the line between pure abstraction and representational art. You mentioned the forms— they are fundamental to understanding his language. The artist often employs such pared-down shapes. These recur throughout his career, taking on different meanings and relationships depending on their context. He often uses the same prints with unique coloration or with multiple mediums applied such as monotype and stencil art, as he did with "Province by the Sea." Editor: Absolutely. And consider the medium itself! This mixed-media approach, stencil and monotype techniques, I believe, grant the artwork a unique texture, a sort of layered depth that adds another dimension. Curator: Agreed. I like to consider the negative spaces too. How the areas devoid of pigment almost seem to breathe life into the composition! What does that say of his artistic approach? Editor: Perhaps that for Barnet, what isn't there is just as important as what is, giving us pause and space to consider everything the artwork inspires within us. Curator: I completely agree. And there’s something undeniably powerful in how he’s able to achieve so much with seemingly so little. Editor: It’s a quiet masterpiece, a study in thoughtful arrangement and suggestive form. "Province by the Sea" beckons, doesn’t it?