Dialogue with Space 1960

Will Barnet created this painting, Dialogue with Space, with a limited palette of grays and blacks. It has this beautifully still quality. I’m thinking about Will in his studio layering thin washes of paint to create a luminous yet melancholic scene. Just look at those figures, two women cloaked in black and a scattering of blackbirds. It seems like the air is charged with unspoken words, or maybe unspeakable ones. That one bird mid-flight, wings spread wide - what’s he thinking? What’s he trying to say? Like a conversation between forms, Barnet’s painting feels both meticulously planned and surprisingly intuitive. You can almost feel the artist trying to capture a fleeting moment, a gesture, an atmosphere, something true about life. And you get the sense that he’s in conversation with other artists, too, across time and space. That’s how painting works, one artist speaks to another, and somehow we’re all invited to listen in.