Bill Barrett

BILL BARRETT SCULPTURE Public and Private Installations

“Important sculptures are sculptures the public can live with, grow with, and keep going back to physically, mentally, and emotionally.

Bill Barrett

Bill Barrett is one of America’s most prominent sculptors working in bronze and steel. He is especially recognized for his large-scale works that bring a remarkable and unexpected sense of poetic lyricism, gestural spontaneity, and expansive improvisation to material that is otherwise considered fixed and inert. His work has, in fact, been acclaimed for its sense of musical fluidity and graceful free-flowing calligraphic gesture frozen in space.

Like Auguste Rodin and Henry Moore before him, Barrett has created a body of bronze and steel sculpture that is both aesthetically innovative and technically virtuosic. His work exudes an energetic ecstasy of motion captured in bronze, a spirit of frolic that resembles the freedom and expressiveness of dance.

It is no wonder, then, that numerous universities, colleges, corporate construction developers, and municipalities have sought out Barrett to create significant sculpture of noteworthy consequence in order to signature major buildings, courtyards, campuses, and interior spaces. LewAllen Galleries is pleased to offer its more than 40 years of providing exceptional artistic and logistical experience to assist its clients in acquiring Barrett sculptures well-suited for and consonant with the image, experience, and ambiance being sought for installation in important spaces.

Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa

Pyramid Hill Sculpture Park, Hamilton, Ohio

About Bill Barrett Bill Barrett’s abstract metal sculptures call to mind the fluid effortlessness of calligraphic strokes, suggesting a joyousness and freedom to which many viewers are drawn. For Barrett, “Sculptures should provide a life-giving force that enriches one’s senses and refresh one’s visions—appealing to the viewer’s inner self, to their changing moods, and to their ideas. An important sculpture is one that one can live with, grow with, and keep coming back to physically, mentally, and emotionally.”

Rendered in bronze, steel or aluminum, Bill Barrett sculptures are noted for their display of dream-like floating forms that exude a swirling energy. Art reviewers have frequently observed that Barrett’s works gracefully address the interplay between positive and negative space with elegance and exquisite balance. Distinctly American in their directness and lightness, Barrett’s sophisticated constructions, with their delicate balance of form and content, project a generous sense of warmth and a gracious humanity. The artist notes that he is “always trying to incorporate beauty of perfection and emotion, using uplifting forms toward harmony and assertiveness and their relationships to each other.”

Bill Barrett attended the University of Michigan from 1954 to 1960 and earned his BS and MS in Design and his MFA from the same institution. He has been exhibiting his work since the mid-1960s and has been included in many museum exhibitions and international art expositions: the Whitney Sculpture Annual in 1970, Art Basel in 1989, the Tokyo Expo in 1990, and the Armory Show in New York in 1996, and the 2009 year-long Sculpture Walk in Zell, Germany—just to name a few.

Recent Example of Major Barrett Sculpture Installation at Oklahoma State University

A representative example of public institutions and private developers choosing major sculptures by Bill Barrett was the recent installation of “DNA IV” as an iconic symbol of vitality and life to resonate the aesthetic ideals of The McKight Center for the Performing Arts completed in late 2019 at Oklahoma State University. The 12-foot masterpiece by Barrett was hailed by University and State officials for its lyrical sense of rhythmic motion frozen in bronze. They also proclaimed the sculpture’s physical representation of DNA as the basis of all life and the role of the monumental work to provoke creative thought and dialogue within the university and local community.

Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, Oklahoma Photographer: Phil Shockley

Bill Barrett Selected Public Installations Universities Iowa State University, IA Mercy College, NY Michigan State University, MI Oklahoma State University, OK Rice University, TX Stony Brook University, NY University of Hartford, CT University of Michigan, MI William Paterson University, NJ

Luxury Residences & Hotels The Corinthian, NY Four Seasons, Lumière Place, MO La Jolla Crossroads Garden Community, CA MGM Macau Casino & Hotel, Macau, China Nemacolin Woodlands Resort, PA Palazzo Hotel, NV Peabody Hotel, Little Rock, AR

Sculpture Gardens Anderson Sculpture Garden, IA

University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan

Grounds for Sculpture, NJ

Pyramid Hill Sculpture Park, OH Runnymede Sculpture Farm, CA Schulman Sculpture Park, NY

Museums 9/11 Memorial Museum, NY Aldrich Museum of Art, CT Cleveland Museum of Art, OH Neuberger Museum of Art, NY Norfolk Museum of Art, VA Reading Public Museum, PA Utsukushi-ga-Hara Museum, Tokyo, Japan Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, VA

Corporations Best Products, VA Dell Foundation, TX Hitachi Corporation, Tokyo, Japan Neiman Marcus, TX Portman Corporation, GA Rockefeller Embarcadero Center, CA Torrey Pines Bank, CA Tower Insurance Group, NY Trammell-Crow, Paramount, CA

Tower Group Company New York, New York

“Bill Barrett’s sculpture belongs to the classic line of American Modernism – the line that stems from Cubism, but that has accommodated the more romantic gestures of Abstract Expressionism.”

John I. H. Baur, Director and Emeritus Whitney Museum of American Art New York, NY “Bill Barrett’s “HARI IV” – a large aluminum, graffiti-inspired sculpture – is one of the most successful public sculptures in the city...”

Michael Brenson, Art Critic The New York Times, 1988 “Barrett’s sculptures display forms that exude a swirling energy. Distinctly American in their directness and lightness, Barrett’s sophisticated constructions are balanced through their calligraphic sensibility and abstract references to form.”

Victoria Berry, Director Oklahoma State University Museum of Art Stillwater, OK “Bill Barrett’s sculpture, “Twyla,” is certainly a fine example of the value of public sculpture and how it can enhance the experience of both space and the campus.”

Dr. Susan J. Bandes, Director Kresge Art Museum, Michigan State University East Lansing, MI

Michigan State University East Lansing, Michigan

New Dorp High School Staten Island, New York

About LewAllen Galleries LewAllen Galleries has been a pioneering force for contemporary and modern art for more than forty years, maintaining a robust schedule of exciting exhibitions, publications and educational programs each year. Its purpose-built location is an award-winning, 14,000 square-foot, state-of-the-art gallery building in the Santa Fe Railyard Arts District. In 2009, LewAllen Galleries commissioned the noted art-space architectural firm, DNCA Architects, to create the building’s design. This stunning museum-like space is one of the finest privately owned art exhibition spaces in the Western United States. In 2012, AIA Albuquerque honored the design of the LewAllen Galleries with an award of merit.

Contact Information LewAllen Galleries

1613 Paseo de Peralta Santa Fe, NM 87501 505.988.3250 publicart@lewallengalleries.com

LewAllen Galleries is comprised of two divisions: The Contemporary Division – which over its long history has earned a reputation for representing some of the nation’s best-known living painters and sculptors, alongside up and coming artists of exceptional promise – and The Modern Division, which curates and presents signal works from masters of American and European Modernism in accordance with the highest standards of connoisseurship, scholarship, and ethical practice.

Major collectors and curators frequently cite LewAllen Galleries as being among the finest in the nation. Gallery exhibitions have been the subject of reviews and profile coverage in leading art magazines such as ARTnews, Art in America, and ARTFORUM, as well as in local and regional publications. LewAllen Galleries enjoys a significant following among corporations, public arts organizations, and museums, and prominent private collectors in whose collections the works of its represented artists appear.

Combined, gallery staff has over fifty years of experience coordinating public, university, and corporate installations.

Additional Services Fine Art Consultation Artist Representation Art Handling & Installation Digital Placement Preview Project Supervision & Execution Fine Art Acquisitions

Nemacolin Woodlands Resort, Farmington, Pennsylvania

“My sculpture is a vehicle through which my humanity communicates with the viewer’s.

There is beauty in humanity— and art that reflects this beauty can elevate the quality of life.”

Bill Barrett

Railyard Arts District | 1613 Paseo de Peralta | Santa Fe, New Mexico 87501 | tel 505.988.3250 www.lewallengalleries.com | publicart@lewallengalleries.com © 2020 LewAllen Contemporary LLC