Robert Barber

Kerry Schuss is pleased to present a new exhibition of work by Robert Barber (1921-2023), marking his sixth solo show with the gallery.

Bringing together a selection of black-and-white paintings from the late 1950s through the 1960s, the exhibition captures a pivotal moment in Barber's work. While Barber maintained both figurative and abstract practices throughout his exceptionally long career (remarkably prolific, he continued painting until his death at the age of 101), this exhibition focuses on a period of formal experimentation, the resonances of which would continue in his work for decades to come.

On view is a series of earlier abstract “tree” paintings, whose movement and texture vividly evoke distinct natural forms. The loose brushwork immediately evokes tangles of branches, while still exploring non-representational gestures. Also on view is a later series of paintings based on cartons, which veers toward a more observational mode of abstraction. Shape and shadow push the limits of graphic forms, punctuated by a careful, yet playful, approach to composition and texture.

Barber worked in a vast range of styles, but what unites his body of work is the singular quality of his painting: an uncontrived elegance and sense of boundlessness, conveyed through a masterful handling of paint. On some canvases, the application is distinctly built up, while in others it pushes toward dissolution; yet across the paintings, his directness of approach allows for spontaneous mark-making, resulting in a gestural vitality and striking materiality.

Who Robert Barber was remains just as fascinating as his paintings. Born in Minneapolis in 1922, Barber served in the U.S. Navy during World War II as a surgical nurse in Okinawa and Saipan. He received an undergraduate degree from the Minneapolis School of Art and an MFA from the University of Minnesota, where he studied under Phillip Guston in 1952.

After receiving his degrees, he taught at Illinois University of Wesleyan for three years before moving to Tucson, Arizona in 1956, where he became an educator in public schools for nearly four decades. Barber produced art from his teens until his passing, yielding a vast array of extraordinary work in various mediums spanning over 80 years. Yet beyond a few local Tucson exhibitions, Barber was virtually unknown until a 2015 full-scale retrospective at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Tucson, co curated by Anne-Marie Russell and Jocko Weyland. In conjunction with this extensive exhibition, Arizona Public Media made a short film profile on his work and life and he began to captivate the public eye.

The final decade of Robert Barber’s life was filled with recognition, exhibitions, and accolades, and a prolific creative output. Along with the numerous solo exhibitions at Kerry Schuss gallery features different bodies of Barber’s work, he was featured in various group exhibitions. In 2018, his work was included in the American Academy of Arts and Letters annual "Invitational" exhibition. He was featured in the Spring/Summer 2023 issue of Apartmento Magazine. Additionally, several of Barber’s paintings were placed into important collections including The Minneapolis Institute of Art, his alma mater. This beautiful last chapter spoke to who he was as an artist as much as who he was as a person: ever-engaged, humble, industrious, and making art up until his last days.