Jennifer Bartlett at Locks

Art in America, Nov, 2004 by Anne Fabbri

Jennifer Bartlett's recent exhibition, titled "At Sea," was a reprise of three large murals, the last with sculptural elements, that range in date from 1979 to 1985. Together they probe reality, explore subjective perception and evoke a world of dreams.

The earliest grouping, At Sea (1979), places two oil paintings on canvas within a grid of 112 silkscreened and painted baked enamel plates. Here, the artist presents her subjective impressions of the sea, with its rapidly moving waters and turbulent white foam. Flickers of reds, yellows and orange emerge from the depths, and the strange ovoid canvases reflect the surface while hovering over it.

Atlantic Ocean (1984), ca. 8 1/2 by 30 feet overall, comprises a similar grid of 224 baked enamel plates. More tranquil than the earlier piece, this work shows a seascape with swells and broad rolling waves that we observe from above. Over a distant horizon line, cirrus clouds fill the summer sky.

In both of these pieces, the silkscreen grid and the spaces between the 12-inch-square steel plates impose a stringent order upon the otherwise fluid style. The eye accepts the interruptions as necessary; the grid keeps the moving waters in their own space, from which they do not threaten to invade ours.

Sea Wall (1985) is an installation dominated by a three-part, oil-on-canvas painting. Spanning more than 30 feet overall, the painting depicts a waterside landscape punctuated by boats and small beach shacks. Pastel-colored three-dimensional objects placed on the gallery floor correspond to elements in the paintings, reiterating the shore scene as if in a dream. The landscape is bathed in the strange light of imagination, the darkening night suddenly illuminated by a flash of lightning that casts objects in an unnatural glare. The sculptural forms provide a surreal element; they are both an extension of the painted space and its tangible fragments. These three works, not seen publicly for more than a decade, continue to project a mystery and potency.