From an eight-part series about my key creative influences between the ages of 14 through 29, arguably the years when the foundation of one’s artistic point of view is established.
Jennifer Bartlett’s impact on me is primarily a single work that I saw one afternoon in 1985 at the La Jolla Museum of Contemporary Art. But what a monster work it is.
Rhapsody from 1975-76 is a sprawling, gigantic painting installation of 987 foot-square steel tiles arranged 7 plates tall by 142 long. I was not prepared for the impact it would have on me.
It is a synthesis of nearly everything in art up until that moment, while anticipating many of the themes and ideas to come.
It is simultaneously minimal and painterly, with the rigor of conceptualism and the spontaneity of expressionism, in a seemingly infinite grid that provides structure for an otherwise free-roaming exploration.
“Rhapsody released artists from the tyranny of the singular authentic style and made art an instrument more elastically responsive to the free play of mind and intuition,” wrote Ken Johnson. “No single work mapped the possibilities of a new era so comprehensively and prophetically.”
It is my single favorite artwork of all time. I’m not saying it is the best, or that you’ll even like it. But it is as if it was designed for how my brain works.
