Robert Barry: ONE WORD

Even prior to his first solo exhibition in 1965, nearly sixty years ago, Robert Barry was continuously exploring new directions in his artistic practice. This current exhibition features seven paintings, each pared down to a single word on monochromatic or wooden background fields. Some single panels, some multipart. They strike a precise, studied balance of inclusion and restraint. The bare minimum of materials and content to still achieve their full intent. Our gallery’s inaugural exhibition a year ago was a restaging of Barry’s 1969 Closed Gallery piece, and we are thrilled to now be presenting a group of Mr. Barry’s newest works. 

Since the 1960s Barry has challenged the physical and conceptual definitions of artworks and the ways in which art connects to the contexts in which it is displayed.  His early minimal paintings first pushed compositions to the edges and sides of the canvases, then burst into activating full walls and rooms. His monofilament line sculptures frequently were defined by the proportions of the spaces in which they were installed. He explored sculptural materials that have physical properties in the world, that can be recorded with the proper instruments, but due to being undetectable by human senses seem to be invisible: inert gasses, radiation, magnetic and radio waves, ultrasonic sound, etc. Language, always important to his work, came more to the forefront, in works such as “It Has Order”, 1969-70, with short, typed sentences over otherwise empty pages ' ... it has order ... it is always changing ... it is affected by other things ... it affects other things ... it is not confined ... it is not in any specific place ... it can be presented, but go unnoticed ... to know of it is to be part of it …' The clean, clear and clinical aesthetic of these works seem to be accurately describing something, but belies the fact that ultimately information is only hinted at, a full picture is withheld, leaving viewers to complete the circle themselves. The audience is given prompting information, sending them down paths of thought they only later realize are unique, personal responses to the artworks. Their own highly specific sets of experience and connotations prompting them to see the art through personal lenses. 

Short phrases on his work evolved into independent clusters of words (painted, printed, carved, cast, projected and in vinyl) floating in constellations over canvases, paper, walls, windows, even lawns.  Read alone, in pairs, or in varying combinations scanned back and forth horizontally and up and down vertically as the eye wanders. These words become continuous streams of thoughts and contemplation. Neither poetry nor propose. Each mind making a different sense of things.

His newest paintings feature a single work on each piece. His word choices always open-ended and generous. Words that are widely known, rather than obscure or erudite selections. Their minimal language content making them that much more direct, yet with almost no context, maximizing Barry’s efforts to have each artwork create a singular response from each viewer. Each work becomes a world upon itself in each imagination, the piece in its entirety growing unknowable due to existing in the minds of so many people. Each person can only really know their own conception of it.

Barry’s art has been included in epoch-making exhibitions such as When Attitudes Become Form… at the Kunsthalle Bern and The Institute of Contemporary Art, London, Documenta in Kassel, the Venice Biennale, and the Paris Biennale. His work has been featured in solo shows at the Tate Gallery, London, the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Museum of Conceptual Art, San Francisco,California, Indianapolis, Museum of Art, The Renaissance Society, University of Chicago, Kustmuseum Luzern, RISD, Le Consortium, Dijon, Museum Folkwang, Essen, the Stadtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich, along with many others. He was the first living artist to have a work permanently installed at the Musée d’Orsay, in the Salle du Fumoir. Along with Lawrence Weiner, Joseph Kosuth, and Douglas Huebler he was one of four artists included in Seth Siegelaub’s  landmark exhibition “January 5 – 31, 1969,” know as the Catalog Exhibition. His work was included in Paula Cooper’s first show ever. He was in Ann Goldstein and Anne Rorimer’s 1995 exhibition Reconsidering the Object of Art, at MoCA LA. A comprehensive retrospective and accompanying catalogue of his early work, A Place To Which We Can Come, Works from 1963 to 1975 was organized by the Kunsthalle Nürnberg, Nürnberg, Germany and Aargauer Kunsthaus, Aarau, Switzerland.

His work is included in the permanent collections of the world's major museums and foundations: the Museum of Modern Art, NY; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Musée d'Orsay, Paris; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Centre George Pompidou, Paris; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; The National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; the Kunstmuseum, Basel, and the Ludwig, Vienna, to name just a few.

He has been represented for decades by storied galleries: Leo Castelli, Yvon Lambert, Massimo Minini, Holly Solomon, Paul Maenz, Jack Wendler, Alfonso Artiaco, Sfeir-Semler, Greta Meert, Thomas Solomon, and more. Recent gallery shows have been held at Gallery Shilla, Krakow Witkin, Francesca Minini, Parra & Romero, Cristina Guerra. The last decade in Los Angeles has included exhibitions at Marc Selwyn Fine Art and at Bethlehem Baptist Church, both curated by Thomas Solomon.