As their titles suggest, these works of Bill Barrett move

with grace and vitality: Bolero, Taurus, Equipoise. But

their origins are deeper than the dancers and

movements they clearly evoke. Rodin, Henry Moore,

the Futurists all had an influence on Barrett, and here

one gets a glimpse of Degas. The more  profound

influences have come from two-dimensional

art: expressionism, Asian calligraphy and, deepest

of all, surrealism. Surrealism as process rather than

image; surrealism as access to the locus of memory

and feeling, to the place where the human inclination

to sing and to move gracefully has its origins.

Representing the evanescent in bronze is no mean feat.

For Barrett it took 40 years of refining technique to

the point where technique could disappear in works

that were as much essence as object.  His enabling

invention starts with his drawing forms freely in wax.

He selects and combines these elements into

free-standing wax models the best of which are cast in

bronze. The larger versions he fabricates - impeccably -

from bronze sheet.  Through it all, the expressive

freedom of drawing is retained but, inevitably, the

process is influenced by temperament.  How lucky we

are that this sculptor's temperament, in defiance of the

aesthetic rules of the age, avoids the dark places of our

subconscious to create works of verve and harmony

and, in the ultimate act of defiance, of sheer beauty.

-Philip F. Palmedo, author of BILL BARRETT:

Evolution of a Sculptor (Hudson Hills Press)

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