Rick Bartow: Transformative Encounters

Stonington Gallery is proud to present Rick Bartow: Transformative Encounters, featuring a number of his works which were informed by others—other artists, other works of art, other places. From music to literature, visual arts to Japanese theater, European masters to fellow artists and collaborators, Bartow was inspired by and incorporated these subjects into his works. He was an astute observer of life and through these portraits and interpretations, and utilizing his preferred mediums of drypoints, monotypes, and mixed media originals on paper, Bartow portrays these characters with humor, intrigue, and canny detail. In this exhibition, we explore the various artists and other influences that found their way directly into Bartow’s iconic imagery.

Bartow took his first trip to Japan in 1994, which had a significant impact on him and his work. One of the people he met on this trip was Toshiaki Yanagisawa, who owned a gallery that would go on to represent Bartow’s work. This gallerist and friend was the subject of a number of pieces by Rick over the years. There was also shared creativity and long artistic collaborative relationships with Japanese printmaker, Seiichi Hiroshima, and Japanese papermaker, Naoki Sakamoto. Both were enormously influential in Rick’s career. Without these two figures, many of Rick’s works may have been something completely different than what they actually became. With this closeness to Japanese friends and collaborators, it was inevitable that other elements of Japanese culture, theater, art, and language would emerge in Rick’s pieces as in Jennifer, Otsue IV (Japan Sketch Series), Poem I, and many others over his long career.

Horst Janssen, a German artist who also utilized Sakamoto’s beautiful handmade paper in his art was another who shaped much of Bartow’s artistic focus, style, and subject matter, as well as drawing attention to other interesting historical German artists. A wonderful example of Bartow combining both the style and subject of Janssen is in For Horst, where Bartow blends the shading style and line quality of Horst Janssen’s work in a portrait of that artist, making a direct connection to Janssen’s personal affect on Bartow on every level. Also, in For Klimt, he uses Gustave Klimt’s signature swirling marks as a tribute to that artist’s style. We can see in the titles of many of Bartow’s pieces the artists that he pays homage to: Egon Schiele, Claude Monet, Hieronymous Bosch, Hans Holbein, Hyacinth Joe David, Jr., Joe Feddersen and more.

Of course, Rick Bartow was not influenced only by other visual artists, but through literature, music, and theater as well. Rick would often incorporate portraits of these artists into his work, along with the stories they told, lyrics from songs they wrote, or the feelings elicited by experiencing the art itself. This exhibition examines the many influences of Rick Bartow’s work and his dedication to exploring and celebrating the incredibly rich and creative world of around him.

Exhibition Dates: