Object Details
Artist
Jennifer Bartlett
Date
1983
Medium
Color screenprint on Arches paper
Dimensions
Image: 29 1/4 × 37 7/8 inches (74.3 × 96.2 cm)
Credit Line
Acquired with funds provided by the National Endowment for the Arts, and through the generosity of Martha Merrifield Steen, Class of 1949, and Bill Steen, supplemented by other donors
Object
Number
90.013
Ironically, Jennifer Bartlett’s In the Garden series evolved out of a minimalist/conceptual vision. (…)
Ironically, Jennifer Bartlett’s In the Garden series evolved out of a minimalist/conceptual vision. This lush series, in sharp contrast to her earlier work, uses bright colors and a romantic approach to a garden scene, replete with pool and a sculptural attendant in the shape of a small cherub. In this print, the setting is seen side-by-side from two different angles: the left hand side of the sheet is devoted to the statue perched on the edge of the pool, knees bent, as if to urinate into it; the right side allows us to look over the same figure’s shoulder into the pool, as if a participant in the scene. This loss of momentum results in a gentle but eerie stillness, a haunting look at the life of a garden during the course of many months. Spending a winter in the south of France on the outskirts of Nice, Bartlett confronted her surroundings with intense curiosity. With the fluctuation of the seasons, time of day, and weather, the garden changes its personality radically, from inviting to chill and remote. It has proved to be a versatile and fertile subject for Bartlett, and she has used it as a commentary on the way we see the familiar, the changes we see and the ones we don’t see, and also the comfort of the known. (From “A Handbook of the Collection: Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art,” 1998)
