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Robert Barry

Study for Wallpiece

Maker

Robert Barry (American, b. 1936)

Title

Study for Wallpiece

Year

1983

Medium

  • Blue acrylic paint and graphite on paper

Materials/Techniques

Techniques

  • Blue acrylic paint and graphite on paper

Materials

acrylic, graphite

Supports

  • paper

Dimensions

33.3 x 31.4 cm (13 1/8 x 12 3/8 inches)

Signature / Inscription / Marks

Initialed in the bottom left: RB. Dated in the bottom right: '83.

Credit / Object Number

Credit

The Dorothy and Herbert Vogel Collection: Fifty Works for Fifty States, a joint initiative of the Trustees of the Dorothy and Herbert Vogel Collection and the National Gallery of Art, with generous support from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Institute for Museum and Library Services

Object Number

2009.59.1

Type

  • Drawings and Watercolors

Exhibition History

The Dorothy and Herbert Vogel Collection
Fifty Works for Rhode Island
Jul 20, 2012 – Dec 02, 2012

Label copy

This drawing from 1983 is a study for a full-scale work exhibited the same year at Leo Castelli Gallery in New York. At the center of the design is the image of a tree, barely perceptible under layers of brilliant blue paint. The words inscribed around the perimeter of the composition act as an extension of the branches and roots of the tree. The open-ended and tentative nature of these phrases-especially “seems,” “not often,” and “allowed to”-suggest undefined actions or an unknown state of being.

The Primacy of Paper
Recent Works from the Collection
Jan 15, 2010 – Jun 20, 2010

Label copy

The wall piece in this study was among several blue walls realized full-scale in a 1983 exhibition at Leo Castelli Gallery in New York and subsequently painted over. In all of these works, Barry used a carefully orchestrated presentation of words, shapes, colors, and images to build a conceptual artwork which is nonetheless boldly visual. The core of this design is a drawing of a tree, almost fully obscured under a blinding layer of bright blue paint. Against this backdrop, words and phrases radiate out in a circle like roots or branches, suggesting the fundamental role of language in art. These ambiguous and poetic fragments-“allowed to,” “then,” “seems”-resemble a cluster of incomplete thoughts or ideas. As viewers slowly read the phrases and perceive the subtle under-drawing, the words generate an endless variety of new associations and interpretations, leading to multiple open-ended conversations with the artist.

Image use

The images on this website can enable discovery and collaboration and support new scholarship, and we encourage their use.

In copyright This object is in copyright

Tombstone

Robert Barry (American, b. 1936)
Study for Wallpiece, 1983
Blue acrylic paint and graphite on paper
33.3 x 31.4 cm (13 1/8 x 12 3/8 inches)
The Dorothy and Herbert Vogel Collection: Fifty Works for Fifty States, a joint initiative of the Trustees of the Dorothy and Herbert Vogel Collection and the National Gallery of Art, with generous support from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Institute for Museum and Library Services 2009.59.1

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Feedback

We view our online collection as a living documents, and our records are frequently revised and enhanced. If you have additional information or have spotted an error, please send feedback to curatorial@risd.edu.

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