Fence

Artist Jennifer Bartlett (American, 1941 - 2022)

Date1987

DimensionsPainting: H: 118 in. (299.7 cm); W: 168 in. (426.7 cm).
Sculpture: H: 84 in. (213.4 cm); W: 119 in. (302.3 cm); Depth: 36 in. (91.4 cm).

MediumOil on canvas, wood with steel hinges and latch

ClassificationPaintings

Credit LinePurchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Object number

1988.41B-I

Not on View

Label Text“Do something that attacks the notion of originality.” Jennifer Bartlett’s work investigates the conflict between appearance and our concept of reality. The issue is not simply what we are seeing, but how we are seeing it. Fence presents the same subject in both painting and sculpture. The painting is divided down the center; both sides depict the same white windowless building behind a wooden fence, but shown from slightly different perspectives. The sculpture placed in front of the painting translates the building and fence from two-dimensional to three-dimensional, but perhaps not in the way we might expect. As you look at the installation, consider the ways in which the sculpture recreates the painting: do both include the same cropped edges? How does Bartlett imitate in the sculpture the distortions that indicate spatial recession in the painting? What has she not included in the sculpture? Be sure to walk between the sculpture and painting and see how your relationship with the work of art changes.Published ReferencesToledo Museum of Art, Toledo Treasures, Toledo, 1995, p. 182, repr. (col.).