Totem 1982

Will Barnet’s 1982 work, "Totem," features a stylized figure seated in a chair, reading a book, with a white cat curled up at the bottom of the canvas, as if waiting for its owner to finish their reading. The figure and cat are set against a backdrop of a patterned woven chair and two black crows perched in a tree, suggesting an idyllic scene of reading and domesticity. The image's flatness and stylized figures are characteristic of Barnet's work, and the inclusion of the crows and the patterned chair evokes a sense of symbolism and mystery.