Metonymic Transfiguration: The Apotheosis of the Body in Recent Works of Jack Barnett opens at the Tyler Museum of Art on June 17. This exciting exhibition will consist of over 40 paintings by Texas artist Jack Barnett. It brings together a wide variety of his works, ranging from classic nudes to figurative abstractions.
From an early age, Barnett knew he wanted to be an artist. After a school trip to the Fort Worth Modern, then known as the Fort Worth Art Center, he was taken particularly by Thomas Eakins’ The Swimming Hole, a work portraying boys skinny-dipping on a riverbank.
To be able to combine figures in a landscape environment seemed like magic to me, Barnett said. This interest in composition is evident in his works even when the figures have lost realistic qualities.
Since then, he went on to formally study art at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia. Barnett is a figurative painter and explores the possibilities of expression the human body enables. He is also a contemporary artist who formed his artistic insights in the second half of the twentieth century when the full impact of Modernism was played out and further experimented.
In contrast to his earlier figure paintings, his more recent paintings incorporate concepts from other genres, most notably, landscape and collage. In these works, the original human figure is transformed into parts of collaged images placed in abstract landscapes. These landscapes are ultimately the artist’s depiction of his personal world that encapsulates the history of western art in a fascinating way.
Barnett has lived in Texas for the last 25 years. His works have been shown in and outside the state. He has also won multiple awards, including the 29th Annual Art in the Metroplex Exhibition prize in Fort Worth. His works are in the collections of The Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and The Old Jailhouse Art Center in Albany, Texas, among others.
Metonymic Transfiguration will be on view at the Museum from June 17 through July 29 and is free to the public. For more information about Metonymic Transfiguration, please call 903-595-1001 or visit tylermuseum.org today.
The Tyler Museum of Art exists as an educational and cultural center to enrich the lives of East Texas citizens and visitors through the collection, preservation, study, exhibition, interpretation, and celebration of the visual arts. The Museum is accredited by the American Association of Museums and is located at 1300 S. Mahon Ave., adjacent to the Tyler Junior College campus off East Fifth Street. For more information, call (903) 595-1001 or visit www.tylermuseum.org.
