Woman and the Sea
/Will Barnet
1973
American, 1911-2012
Lithograph, edition of 75
Loan from the Estate of Will Barnet, made possible by Harmon-Meek Gallery FL.2017.8.21
As psychological as open-narrative works come, Woman and the Sea provides a bare minimum of visual information from which its artist Barnet allow our minds to run free. The simplicity of the composition, a masterwork of silhouetted forms, leaves the backstory completely up to each and every viewer’s imagination. Who is this woman, whose face we will never see? Are we present in this space, watching from behind? Or is this a closed scene, in which we do not take part? Set beachside in an indeterminate season, does the figure’s attire suggest anything about the era in which this is taking place? And what experiences led up to this moment of introspection, as she stares in solitude out at the sea?