{"id":1398,"date":"2009-12-21T16:29:20","date_gmt":"2009-12-22T00:29:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp\/2009\/12\/nothing_like_confidence_coded\/"},"modified":"2009-12-21T16:29:20","modified_gmt":"2009-12-22T00:29:20","slug":"nothing_like_confidence_coded","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/2009\/12\/nothing_like_confidence_coded.html","title":{"rendered":"Grant Barnhart – Beg For It"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nothing like confidence. For his exhibition announcement photo, Grant Barnhart<\/a> coded the theme onto a mug in his Rat Pack impersonation of a cool guy: Beg For It<\/i>.<\/p>\n

\"grantbarnhartbeg.jpg\"In spite of its self-mocking arrogance, his
\npose is a comic acknowledgment of reality: He is a young painter
\nin Seattle at the edge of even the Seattle experience, overlooked as a
\nmatter of course. With this image, he tells not only his nearly nonexistent audience but the wider world that it
\nwill have to work to keep up with him.<\/p>\n

Which is true. Those who know him expect attitude, and yet his paintings are all heart.<\/p>\n

The old horse whose ragged breath congests in a clotted stream is wrapped in the consolations of color, fall trees behind her
\nand flowers at her feet. Blooms surge as she recedes. For all her
\nweight, she’s drifting like a hair or a feather on a cloudy mixture of
\nmemory.<\/p>\n

Killing Time With Sleeping Pills<\/i>, 2009, acrylic\/canvas, 36 x 48<\/p>\n

\"grantbarnhorsebrth.jpg\"Sympathy for the devil: <\/i>A killing machine leans its hammer head on a pier to die as gulls scream overhead. <\/p>\n

Private Thoughts Are Lost<\/i>, 2009, acrylic\/canvas, 18 x 24<\/p>\n

\"grantbarnshark.jpg\"Foam and froth and dirty wings are all that’s left of the deep, but the light that shimmers on the beast’s bloated flank is as dainty as a Fragonard slipper<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Stephen Crane<\/a>:<\/p>\n

A man said to the universe:
“Sir I exist!”
“However,” replied the universe,
“The fact has not created in me
A sense of obligation.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Thanks to scale shifts, now and then are together again in Goya garb and contemporary: The crowd marinating in its own stupidity gazes at a scene beyond its
\nunderstanding. <\/p>\n

Mastiff On Trial<\/i>, 2009, acrylic\/canvas, 36 x 48 <\/p>\n

\"grantbarngoya.jpg\"Sweeney Todd<\/a>: <\/p>\n

 
There’s a hole in the world like a great black pit
      and the vermin of the world inhabit it
And its morals aren’t worth what a pig could spit…<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

On a lighter note: The image of women stepping into their underwear is an erotic staple, especially in Barnhart’s vein of catching the subject unawares.<\/p>\n

Precious Broken Elastic<\/i>, 2009, acrylic\/canvas, 11 x 14 inches<\/p>\n

\"grantbarnpanty.jpg\"But pearly pink and baby blue shades set up a dainty scene that isn’t there. If the model knows how to put on underwear, it’s not evident from the image. She’s forcing herself into her clothes like a plow furrowing a field. <\/p>\n

Sunset<\/i>, 2009, acrylic\/canvas, 40 x 30<\/p>\n

\"grantbarnwiltflowr.jpg\"Isle of Man<\/i>, 2009, acrylic\/canvas, 60 x 48<\/p>\n

\"grantbarnusablue.jpg\"Although there are narratives here in an Eric Fischl<\/a> vein, Barnhart isn’t interested in creating a common thread.  Fischl would never put such a range of paintings together in one show. He hits a theme and explores it. Barnhart’s disregard for connectives approaches Martin Kippenberger’s<\/a>. Barnhart believes in the vibrational field of a painting, and the idea that vibrations on the same frequency tend to fuse. His do. Beg For It<\/i> at Ambach & Rice<\/a> is a force field. (My review of his previous show here<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

Through Jan. 24.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nothing like confidence. For his exhibition announcement photo, Grant Barnhart coded the theme onto a mug in his Rat Pack impersonation of a cool guy: Beg For It. In spite of its self-mocking arrogance, his pose is a comic acknowledgment of reality: He is a young painter in Seattle at the edge of even the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1398","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1398","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1398"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1398\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1398"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1398"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/anotherbb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1398"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}