Exhibition image of Frances Barth's paintings, Susan Caldwell Gallery, 1976; Mokroe (left), acrylic on canvas, 72" x 140", diptych; Artoosh (right), acrylic on canvas, 72" x 202", triptych). The image illustrates a key early body of work in Frances Barth's career in the 1970s, when she produced large-scale (in this case, roughly 12' to 16'-long), horizontal paintings, exploring meaning and metaphor within geometric abstraction. Their scumbled, scratchy forms—triangles, trapezoids and circles—suggested both atmosphere and gently moving planes shifting places that viewers "read" slowly, from left to right. This work was publicly exhibited in prominent exhibitions, discussed in major art journals and daily press publications and acquired by major museums.

Artist Frances Barth. Copyright held by the artist.

Frances Barth

Entire artwork

Yes

The image serves an informational and educational purpose as the primary means of illustrating a key early body of work in Frances Barth's career in the 1970s: her large-scale, horizontal paintings, which explored the possibilities of meaning and metaphor within abstraction using common geometric shapes such as triangles, trapezoids and circles. The forms functioned as both objects and atmosphere, suggesting gently moving planes that shift in place. They were often arranged in increasingly complex, mural-like arrays that critics described as friezelike, with a successive transformation of shapes that established a sense of temporality and a dichotomy between surface design and pictorial depth. Because the article is about an artist and her work, the omission of the image would significantly limit a reader's understanding and ability to understand this early stage and body of work, which brought Barth initial recognition through exhibitions and coverage by major critics and publications. Barth's work of this type and this series is discussed in the article and by critics cited in the article.

There is no free equivalent of this or any other of this series by Frances Barth, and the work no longer is viewable, so the image cannot be replaced by a free image.

The image will not affect the value of the original work or limit the copyright holder's rights or ability to distribute the original due to its low resolution and the general workings of the art market, which values the actual work of art. Because of the low resolution, illegal copies could not be made.