WILL BARNET (1911 2012) Study for The Chess Game

Sale 2678 - Lot 124

Price Realized: $ 11,250

?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price

Estimate: $ 7,000 - $ 10,000

WILL BARNET (1911-2012)
Study for "The Chess Game."

Watercolor and pencil on vellum, circa 1973. 795x1055 mm; 31¼x41½ inches. Signed in pencil, lower right.

Provenance
Estate of the artist.

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Additional Details

The present lot is a study for Will Barnet's 1973 oil on canvas, The Chess Game in the collection of the Wichita Art Museum (object number 1983.4) and related to the screenprint Seventh Season (see Szoke 156). The works share the same compositional elements as Barnet's The Silent Seasons series of four oils on canvas (and the related lithograph series), which are in the collection of the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, and depict Barnet's daughter Ona.

Barnet has become synonymous with the present drawing's bold flattened style with strong lines. In this work and the related painting, a young woman contemplates a chess board as an unknown player makes their move. Pets, like the cat on the window frame, frequently appear in Barnet's works during this time period, and the animal had become the artist's personal symbol of domesticity. Barnet's iconography is unique to his works, and though the viewer is not always privy to their autobiographical meanings, the symbols establish warmth and familiarity.