Barnet - "Soliloquy" Silkscreen flat color imagery of the artist's daughter and black cat on rug with a one color background

Will Barnet • American: 1911 - 2012

Soliloquy • Silkscreen on Paper 13-3/4” x 26-1/2”

At the age of 41 Will Barnet’s wife told him his daughters weren’t his. It happened during a bitter divorce and just a few years after Barnet reinvented his art by focusing more on his family life. “My family gave me the freedom to be an artist.” Some of his greatest works, including Summer Family featured his three sons, two daughters and first wife, noted painter Mary Sinclair. To him, reality was what he knew and he knew his family, or so he thought. “They’re so much a part of me. I could take liberties with them that I couldn’t take with those I’m not familiar with.”

Then his reality went poof. In 1952 Sinclair left him for a doctor (who painted). Late in life she confided to a friend that she had lied about her daughter’s parentage to stop Will from following her around like a love-sick puppy. But the damage was done and would not be corrected for almost a half century, if ever.

Fortunately, Barnet had a remarkable ability to reinvent himself and his art. In 1953 Barnet married another woman, Elena Ciurlys, a modern dancer from Lithuania. Their daughter, Ona, appeared in many of his paintings, including Soliloquy at the Canton Museum of Art.

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This painting represents his best-known style. It recalled the realistic paintings of his early career, before he explored more abstract styles. In a pattern of reinvention, Barnet repeatedly moved between representational and abstract art. The style seen here is precisely structured, using flattened images and leaving little room for interpretation “I was looking for structure in a period that was destroying structure.” This might be why he fought so hard against the Abstract Expressionist art that dominated during much of his life.

Barnet often reinvented his family and artistic career. The two were intertwined. He lived a long time thinking his daughters weren’t really his. Perhaps his journey through so many different artistic styles was a search for what he could depend on to be real.

Canton Museum of Art Permanent Collection • Purchased by the Canton Museum of Art 74.7

4 Ways to Sound Smart When Viewing at The Canton Museum of Art

1.
“Will Barnet lived to be 101 and enjoyed an art career spanning eight decades and 10 major art movements. He was a one-man Art History 101 class.”

2.
“As a child, he painted self-portraits in his parents’ basement, imitating Rembrandt’s style. Perhaps this was the 1920s version of a ‘selfie’.”

3.
“This guy painted in so many different styles that it’s sometimes hard to recognize his work. This was his best known style.”

4.
“He received the National Medal of Arts Award from President Barack Obama. At age 100. He didn’t have long to brag about it, dying later that year.”

Barnet Timeline. Scroll over images to see timeline.

1911

Born in Beverly, Massachussetts. He was one of four children born to Russian immigrant parents and was 15 years younger than his closest sibling.

1928

Dropped out of high school to attend the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.

1930

Submitted a portfolio of sketches to the Art Students League in Manhattan and was awarded a full scholarship. He moved to New York.

1935

Met and married Mary Sinclair, a fellow student at the Art Students League.

Had his first solo exhibition at the Eighth Street Playhouse in Manhattan.

1936

Began a teaching career that spanned five decades. He eventually taught at the Art Students League, Cornell University, Cooper Union, the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, and Yale University.

1939-1950

With wife Mary, he raised three sons, Peter, Richard, and Todd, and two daughters, Mary and Margaret. Looking to paint the reality he knew best, he began painting family scenes.

1940s-1960s

Became key figure in a New York art movement known as Indian Space Painting. This was a group of painters who based their artwork on abstractions of Native American symbols and art styles.

1952

His wife, Mary, left him for a doctor (who painted). She told him his daughters weren’t his (although they were), in order to get him to stop “following her around like a love-sick puppy.” Nice.

1953

Following a divorce from his first wife, he met and married Lithuanian dancer Elena Ciurlys. His artwork became more abstract, mostly built around symbols used by American Indians.

1960s

While in his 50s, he developed the figurative style he is best known for with silhouetted forms set against geometrically designed backgrounds. The flattened shapes reflected his printmaking style first developed in the 1930s.

1970s

Spent his summers on the coast in Maine. Started painting scenes of women in long dresses by the sea and seated on porches looking as though they were waiting for someone to return.

1972

Painted Soliloquy, which features Ona, his daughter from his second marriage, and her cat. This painting resides in the Canton Museum of Art.

1982

He and Elena moved into an apartment in the National Arts Club Gramercy Park where he spent the rest of his life.

2000

Received the first-ever Lifetime Achievement Award Medal from the National Academy of Design.

2012

Received the National Medal of Arts Award from President Barack Obama at a White House Ceremony.

Died later that year in his long-time apartment in the National Arts Club on Gramercy Park. He was 101 years old.