This biography from the Archives of AskART:
|  From Beverly, Massachusetts, Will Barnet became a leading 20th-century
New York based artist, best known for figurative paintings enhanced by
abstract arrangements and printmaking. He was a key figure in the
New York movement called Indian Space Painting, artists who based their
abstract and semi-abstract work on Native American art.
Barnet
studied at the School of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts from 1928 to
1930, and then at the Art Students League in New York, where he focused
on printmaking. He taught briefly at Cornell, Yale, Cooper Union, the
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and the Museum School,
Boston. In 1934, he became the printer for the League, and from
1945 to 1980 was Instructor of Painting at the League.
Throughout
his career he worked in both woodcuts, etching, and lithographs.
Barnet was quoted: "I wasn't so concerned with beautiful line, mass
interested me more than line. The hardest thing is to take line
and make it into something that is contained." His woodcuts are starkly
black and white, and the lithographs have a full range of tones.
Until
1939, his style was realistic, but he did many abstract paintings of
social realist themes between 1940s and 1960, but they were much more
controlled than those of many of his contemporary Abstract
Expressionist peers.
In fact, many of his pieces were purely geometric, exploring the
rectangle. In the latter part of his career of over 80 years, he
explored both abstraction and realism, with all of them carefully
executed.
Robert Doty, art historian, called Barnet, "a master of the abstract
statement. . .creating images of personal vision which rank with the
best of their time."
Source:
Editor, "Will Barnet, Works of Six Decades" American Art Review, June-July 1994
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Biography from Rogallery.com:
|  Will Barnet was born in Beverly, Massachusetts, and studied at the
Boston Museum of Fine Arts School and then at the Art Students League
in New York. He cites Daumier as his first great inspiration at
the age of 14, both for "his profound vision of life and his unequalled
draftsmanship." From the earliest years, Barnet valued concept
equally with technique. Printmaking gave him a wider, freer means
of expression although painting has remained another important medium
throughout his career.
His work of the 1930s and 1940s deals
with the social themes in the forefront of the Depression era, but also
the more personal theme of the mother and child. He later taught
art at such leading American schools as Yale University, Cornell
University, and the Art Students League (1936-1981) and at Cooper Union
(1948 - 1978). He was a visiting professor at many colleges.
Among his students at Copper Union were Mark Rothko and Cy Twombly.
Christopher B. Crosman, director of the Farnsworth Museum, states the
mark of a great teacher is "to insist on individual integrity and the
value of finding one's own vision and artistic voice." Crosman called
Barnet "one of the art world's great humanitarians-mentor, exemplar,
helping hand, and wise friend (Will Barnet: The Nineties).
A
prolific graphic artist, Barnet changed his style significantly at
different points in his career. His earliest works were
influenced by Expressionism; they were followed by abstract works in
the 1950s and 1960s, and finally evolved into more figurative works of
silhouetted forms set against geometrically designed backgrounds.
Barnet has worked in most print media.
Barnet's exhibition record extends from 1934 to 2002 and includes the
Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Guggenheim Museum in New York, and the
Boston Museum of Fine Arts.
His work is in the collections of
American museums including the Albright-Knox Art Gallery; Art Institute
of Chicago,; Corcoran Gallery of Art; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum;
Metropolitan Museum of Art; Museum of Modern Art; Museum of Fine Art,
Boston; National Gallery of Art; Phillips Collection; Seattle Art
Museum; and the Whitney Museum of American Art.
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