Dreamland 1998

Here is a strange and beautiful painting by Bo Bartlett, called Dreamland. It presents a group of figures moving together along a horizon line, as if in a dream or a procession. I wonder what Bartlett was thinking as he layered the paint to make these figures emerge, one after another? The light is uncanny, and the palette is so particular—earthy browns, off-whites, with pops of red. There’s a figure in the front with red and white striped pants and a pointed hat—like a child’s drawing of a clown. What does that gesture mean? It’s odd, but it works. The bride in her white dress seems to come straight out of an Alice Neel painting, and the dark suited man holding a baby adds a somber note. The two women on the right, holding hands, feel so tender and intimate in contrast. These people are all walking towards something together. The act of painting is so intimate. We are lucky as viewers to be able to enter into a painter's dream.