Lithograph with additions in charcoal, 1949. 306x395 mm; 12x15 5/8 inches, full margins. One of only 2 known trial proofs (there was no published edition). Signed in charcoal, lower right, and titled in pencil, lower left.
Acquired directly from the artist by the current owner; private collection, New York. A very good impression of this extremely scarce lithograph.
Born in Beverly, Massachusetts, Barnet (1911-2012) attended the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston from 1928-30. He later won a 3 year scholarship to the Art Students League, New York, where he focused on printmaking. Throughout his career, he mastered a variety of techniques, including etching, woodcut and lithography, such as the current lot. An extremely dynamic artist, Barnet changed his style significantly throughout his career. His earliest graphic works captured the social and economic despair which resulted from the Great Depression, which was followed by his more abstract works of the 1950s and 60s, and culminated in his figurative, elegantly stylized portraits from his later career.
