Will Barnet is Profiled in Art & Antiques

Will Barnet, the prolific American painter and printmaker, is profiled in the May issue of Art & Antiques.

Barnet will turn 98 in May, and to celebrate George Braziller is releasing Will Barnet: A Sketchbook, 1932-1934, a collection of previously unreleased drawings from the beginning of Barnet's career. Here's what Art & Antiques says about the book:

The artist himself had forgotten it existed, so the freshness of the drawings, executed en plein air in Central Park, was as much a revelation to him as it will be to those who know Barnet's more finished works. Here are spontaneous, emotionally intense pen-and-ink snapshots of ordinary people taking refuge in the park from the city's stresses--sailors with their dates, young parents with babies, lovers embracing in the grass--and finding some relief from the worrisome times in each other's company.


Barnet had only recently arrived in the city when he begain the sketchbook. "It was the deep Depression, and I cuaght these people who were its victims," he recalls... "I was living like they were living... I used to sleep in the park on top of big rocks across from the St. Moritz Hotel. I wanted to catch the moment. My sketch pad and pen were a means of expressing my feelings about the city."

Meet Will Barnet on ArtBabble

After reading the piece on ArtBabble in today's New York Times, we decided to check the website out. It's a great resource for artist interviews, retrospectives, and just building an online community around art and artists. And what a fancy design!

What's more, there's a video on Will Barnet, the prolific American artist, talking about his work and influences. We're publishing Will Barnet: A Sketchbook, 1932-1934 a collection of Barnet's never-before-seen early sketches, in May to celebrate his 98th birthday.

Check out the video here:

Will Barnet's Sketchbook

Will Barnet, one of the most prolific and widely exhibited living American painters, turns 98 in May, and in celebration of this event we're publishing Will Barnet: A Sketchbook, 1932-1934, which collects sketches from Barnet's formative years that have never before been exhibited or published.

Library Journal reviews A Sketchbook in its latest issue:

Eight decades of American artist Barnet's work have reflected trends from social realism to abstract formalism in prints, drawing, and paintings. Published here is a recently uncovered collection of sketches figurative in their style. Vibrant yet precise, these were executed en plein air in the early 1930s while Barnet was a student at the Art Students League in Manhattan. The drawings evoke the life and vitality of city dwellers in summertime, enjoying New York's Central Park as a communal backyard.

Check back later as we post some selected images from this beautiful new book.