Our current Jennifer Bartlett exhibition is one of the most extraordinary shows the Addison has organized. Beautiful, scholarly, and inspiring, the show is also among the most challenging. Rhapsody, the dramatic conclusion of the show, is one object made of 987 painted, enamel-faced steel plates. The installation had to occur piece by piece, with each piece precisely measured. Our very skilled installation staff accomplished an amazing feat. The work, as does everything installed in our gracious and elegant galleries, looks fantastic, and on many levels it is the stuff of fantasy.
Rhapsody is one of the most important and influential works of art from the 1970s. When Jennifer visited the Addison for a gallery talk, she said she initially thought of the work as a long conversation between two old friends. The discussion might begin with one topic but then meander to another and then another, with peaks and valleys of emotion and engagement. Rhapsody does indeed have that effect as it moves from simple planes of color to abstract landscape elements to wild circles and
patterns to hyper realist landscapes, and powerful, totemic black and white geometries. It quotes almost every movement in American art from a celebration of landscape to abstract gesturalism to the stark minimalism of black blocks and circles.
I love the conversation it has with Eakins’s great Portrait of Henry Rowland at the other end of the museum. This is one of the best American portraits of the nineteenth century, frankly realistic, but, like Bartlett’s work, dealing at its core with abstract thinking. At the center of the portrait, Rowland’s colorful defraction grating resolves itself into an abstract painting that could have been done in the 1970s.
There was not a tremendous amount of important painting when Jennifer did Rhapsody, but we have to count the work as one of the great American paintings of the century for its variousness, skill, impact, and achieved ambition. There is an obsessive quality, to be sure, as Jennifer painted each of the dotted plates by hand. I was amazed when I studied the plates depicting black and white geometries and the plates of pure, saturated color. Each one had a beautiful painterly quality. The artist and the hand are always present, giving the work the magical feel of craftsmanship.
So many people have told me that they have made multiple visits to the show. With good reason, since once Rhapsody returns to the Museum of Modern Art, it is unlikely to be seen again for many years. The show closes on December 10, and I hope you make the opportunity to visit.
