Blue Bicycle 1979

Will Barnet painted this flat, serene image of a woman cycling on a blue bicycle. There's a simplicity to the image—it's as if the artist reached for the most essential components of his subject. I can imagine Barnet, brush in hand, gently coaxing this scene into existence. He probably started by blocking in areas of color—the red shirt, the yellow skirt, the blue bike—and defining his composition from there. There’s something calm and knowing about the image; the bare feet on the bicycle pedal, the plant-filled basket, the bird in flight. The woman and the bird are in perfect harmony, like old friends, both floating weightlessly through a bright world. Barnet was so interested in flatness, and in paring down the elements of a painting to their bare minimum. It reminds me of Alex Katz or Milton Avery, artists who are also interested in reducing the amount of information in a painting. Artists look at each other’s work, and have dialogues across generations—it is a type of exchange, where styles of painting continue to inspire new ways of seeing.