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Locks Gallery is pleased to present Addresses (1976–78), an exhibition of plate paintings and
related studies by Jennifer Bartlett, on view April 20th through May 25th, 2012. There will
be a reception for the artist on Friday, April 20th from 5:30 to 7:30 pm. A book focusing on
the artist’s work on plates, Jennifer Bartlett: Enameled Steel Plates, has just been published.
This exhibit is the first devoted solely to the thematic series all with addresses as titles. It will
include works borrowed from private collections and museums (2 Priory Walk (1977), The
Philadelphia Museum of Art, PA and Falcon Avenue, Seaside Walk, Dwight Street, Jarvis Street,
Greene Street (1976), The Whitney Museum of American Art, NY). The paintings emerged
from an intense period—she had just begun a monumental commission for Atlanta’s
Federal Courthouse and only a few months prior had completed and first exhibited Rhapsody
(1976). At this stage the artist had been working in the plate format for a decade and all of
the works in this series are that format—a support she had originated.
The titles correspond to homes and studios of friends in downtown New York and also the
artist’s addresses at various times. The street names in the titles: Howard, Greene, Lafayatte
and White conjure up a time when artists first occupied the former industrial lofts of SoHo.
Bartlett’s house motif was originally introduced in House Piece (1970), a dot painting with
numerous variations of the same house form and the structure viewed from multiple perspectives. In Rhapsody, the house is rendered in dots and freehand; in the Address
Paintings, the artist uses her most extensive range of techniques. The images are composed
in freehand, gridded, hatch marked, dotted. In several of the paintings, she chose to let the
paint run and leave drips.
If the house motif is a archetype both personally throughout her work and a universal
pictorial element, in the Address Paintings the motif also acts as a surrogate for the person
associated with the address. The expressive paint treatment in each painting, further defines
the portrait-like aspect of the series.
Jennifer Bartlett (b. Long Beach, CA, 1941) received her B.A. from Mills College, CA, and her
B.F.A. (1964) and M.F.A. (1965) from Yale University, CT. Her works are in the collections
of Baltimore Museum of Art, MD; Brooklyn Museum, NY; Cleveland Museum of Art,
OH; Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, TX; Denver Art Museum, CO; Fogg Art Museum, MA;
Houston Museum of Fine Arts, TX; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY; The Museum of
Modern Art, NY; Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, MO; North Carolina Museum of Art, NC;
Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, PA; Philadelphia Museum of Art, PA; San Francisco
Museum of Modern Art, CA; Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.;
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, VA; Walker Art Center, MN; Whitney Museum of American
Art, NY; Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT; and The Tate Gallery, London, England,
among others.
Bartlett has been the subject of one person exhibitions at institutions including the Addison
Gallery of American Art, Andover, MA; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN; The Brooklyn
Museum, NY; The Tate Gallery, London, England; Baltimore Art Museum, MD; and The
Wadsworth Athenaeum, Hartford, CT.
This is Jennifer Bartlett’s eleventh solo exhibition at Locks Gallery.
Locks Gallery is located at 600 Washington Square South in Philadelphia, PA. Gallery hours
are Tuesday through Saturday, 10am t0 6pm. For additional information, please contact
Locks Gallery at 215.629.1000 voice, 215.629.3868 fax, or info@locksgallery.com
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