Jennifer Bartlett Rhapsody
Category: Books,Crafts, Hobbies & Home,Crafts & Hobbies
Jennifer Bartlett Rhapsody Details
From Library Journal ``Rhapsody'' is Bartlett's multi-part, multi-theme epic, a statement of the coming of age of an artist. A portable mural extended over 987 one-foot steel plates requiring 153 running feet of wall space, it is an enormous and infrequently mastered challenge to install and exhibit. In 1985-86, however, it will be on view in Minneapolis, Kansas City, Brooklyn, La Jolla, and Pittsburgh, and well worth a trip. In book form it becomes more available, with Smith's guided tour through sections, with Bartlett's notes giving conceptual coherence, and the opportunity to move from close-up to long view by turning a page. ``Rhapsody'' and this book afford a glimpse of a mind and art in action, a discovering and ordering process, an exciting demonstration of ways of growing and expressing the self and the world. Highly recommended. Paula Frosch, Metropolitan Museum of Art Lib., New YorkCopyright 1985 Reed Business Information, Inc. Read more
Reviews
Not sure what personal bone the other reviewer has to pick with the author, but a book-length reading of this work is satisfyingly welcome as the artwork situates itself like a delightful imagistic river deep within the canyon that seems to divide visual abstraction and narrative storytelling. The work is a wonder: an impressive, large-scale oscillation between the two poles of artistic modality above, as well as something akin to an animation by Oskar Fischinger set to a John Coltrane solo...Along with artists such as Hesse, Bartlett was a master in breaking apart the overwhelming grid-rigidity of boys-club Minimalist art of the 60’s-70’s. This book was a first-step in giving her the due she deserves.So, unless you personally know the author and find her irritating for whatever reason, ignore the pretentious, ignoramus reviewer with an axe to proverbial grind and grab a copy of this classic artwork/text.