What is this work?
I'm working at the intersection of photography and printmaking. I worked for many years in silkscreen printmaking, incorporating my photography in a complex and time- ad chemical-consuming process. Ultimately, it's art.
Now, archival pigment printed portraits of women whose likenesses were immortalized in marble or bronze, mostly in the 19th century. Now forgotten, their sculpted portraits become the models I photograph and render as lifelike as best I am able to do; I also find out all I can about each subject, to retrieve them from oblivion. Their lives had the same concerns as ours - love, tragedy, grief, ecstasy, rage - though their times differed. In knowing our loss of these women, and how their lives differed from ours though they were so like us, we may notice time having passed.
Painting in 1965 at age 8, printmaking at 14, photographing at 17. Art history at Bryn Mawr, MFA at CCAC in 1989, and many visits to the National Gallery in DC since childhood. Showing work since the early 1980s, won a few prizes. A few pieces are in museum collections, and many are in private collections in the US and in Europe.
I found my first two marble portraits at Bonaventure cemetery in Savannah in 2014 and was struck at their immediate presence, and at the loss of their stories. I have worked on this series since, most subjects from European monumental cemeteries, but also those of the USA and South America, as well as portraits found in museums. I notice that I'm disposed in spring and summer to work on jolly pieces, not so much in the darker, colder part of the year.
I am driven to respond to the mystery of their passing from memory.
It can be transporting, feeling these women’s lives, and feeling time moving, having moved. I wish you to remember them, and hope that a few of them will haunt you.
About Carson Barnes: Maker of photographs, prints, and combined techniques since the 1970s. Having grown up with an art historian in the house, many weekends were spent at the National Gallery in Washington, DC. Studied under (among others) painter/printmaker Fritz Janschka at Bryn Mawr and Haverford (and a good deal of art history at Bryn Mawr) and photographer Chris Johnson and others at California College of the Arts, BA in fine arts 1978, MFA in printmaking 1989. Work is in private collections in many states, as well as private collections in Sweden, Italy, and Portugal, and museums in Virginia and Massachusetts.
Oh, and why me? It occurred to me that I had the skills to do this work, and that while others have colorized such subjects none has sought to flesh them out literally and figuratively as have I. And, consider the case of Dana Schutz, (white) German painter whose right to create a disturbing portrait of Emmett Till as he appeared after his murder by the Ku Klux Klan. Activists who thought she had no such right, not being Black, deliberately stood in front of her painting so that it could not be seen, all day, all during its exhibition at the 2017 Whitney Biennial. Quite a furor ensued, protestors, counterprostestors, critics and critiques. One thought that bubbled to the top was how is it that the downtrodden and only the downtrodden are allowed to lift themselves up - seemingly, part of the American myth of self creation? I am privileged. As above, I attended a fine undergraduate institution with a renowned art history department, worked for a decade on my work, took the MFA from a good art school, am white and male and cisgender. It has seemed to me that this has been a worthwhile expenditure of such privilege over the past decade.
For those interested, a mostly complete list of exhibitions follows.
I'm working at the intersection of photography and printmaking. I worked for many years in silkscreen printmaking, incorporating my photography in a complex and time- ad chemical-consuming process. Ultimately, it's art.
Now, archival pigment printed portraits of women whose likenesses were immortalized in marble or bronze, mostly in the 19th century. Now forgotten, their sculpted portraits become the models I photograph and render as lifelike as best I am able to do; I also find out all I can about each subject, to retrieve them from oblivion. Their lives had the same concerns as ours - love, tragedy, grief, ecstasy, rage - though their times differed. In knowing our loss of these women, and how their lives differed from ours though they were so like us, we may notice time having passed.
Painting in 1965 at age 8, printmaking at 14, photographing at 17. Art history at Bryn Mawr, MFA at CCAC in 1989, and many visits to the National Gallery in DC since childhood. Showing work since the early 1980s, won a few prizes. A few pieces are in museum collections, and many are in private collections in the US and in Europe.
I found my first two marble portraits at Bonaventure cemetery in Savannah in 2014 and was struck at their immediate presence, and at the loss of their stories. I have worked on this series since, most subjects from European monumental cemeteries, but also those of the USA and South America, as well as portraits found in museums. I notice that I'm disposed in spring and summer to work on jolly pieces, not so much in the darker, colder part of the year.
I am driven to respond to the mystery of their passing from memory.
It can be transporting, feeling these women’s lives, and feeling time moving, having moved. I wish you to remember them, and hope that a few of them will haunt you.
About Carson Barnes: Maker of photographs, prints, and combined techniques since the 1970s. Having grown up with an art historian in the house, many weekends were spent at the National Gallery in Washington, DC. Studied under (among others) painter/printmaker Fritz Janschka at Bryn Mawr and Haverford (and a good deal of art history at Bryn Mawr) and photographer Chris Johnson and others at California College of the Arts, BA in fine arts 1978, MFA in printmaking 1989. Work is in private collections in many states, as well as private collections in Sweden, Italy, and Portugal, and museums in Virginia and Massachusetts.
Oh, and why me? It occurred to me that I had the skills to do this work, and that while others have colorized such subjects none has sought to flesh them out literally and figuratively as have I. And, consider the case of Dana Schutz, (white) German painter whose right to create a disturbing portrait of Emmett Till as he appeared after his murder by the Ku Klux Klan. Activists who thought she had no such right, not being Black, deliberately stood in front of her painting so that it could not be seen, all day, all during its exhibition at the 2017 Whitney Biennial. Quite a furor ensued, protestors, counterprostestors, critics and critiques. One thought that bubbled to the top was how is it that the downtrodden and only the downtrodden are allowed to lift themselves up - seemingly, part of the American myth of self creation? I am privileged. As above, I attended a fine undergraduate institution with a renowned art history department, worked for a decade on my work, took the MFA from a good art school, am white and male and cisgender. It has seemed to me that this has been a worthwhile expenditure of such privilege over the past decade.
For those interested, a mostly complete list of exhibitions follows.
Exhibitions (group except as noted):
Aug 1982 Focus Photographic Exhibition, SF CA
Jul 1984 New College of CA Gallery, SF CA
Jan 1985 L.A. Printmaking Society LA CA
Oct 1985 Point Gallery, SF CA (one man)
Nov 1985 New College of CA Gallery, SF CA (one man)
Dec 1985 Comfort Gallery, Haverford PA
Feb 1986 Footworks Studio, SF CA
Mar 1986 Light Sensitive 7, University of Florida @ Gainesville May 1986 Lillian Paley Ctr for Visual Arts, Oakland, CA
Jun 1986 Triton Museum, Santa Clara CA Jul 1986 Pacific Art League, Palo Alto CA
Aug 1986 Pacific States Printmaking Exhibition, Hilo HI
Oct 1986 NEXT corporate gallery, Sunnyvale CA
Jun 1987 Crocker Museum, Sacramento CA
Jun 1987 Marin Arts Guild, Larkspur CA
Aug 1987 E.G. Gallery, SF CA
Sep 1987 Pacific Grove Art Center, Pacific Grove CA
Sep 1987 September Exhibition, Alexandria Museum of Art, Alexandria, LA
Feb 1988 The New Art Place, SF CA
May1989 Old Oakland Gallery, Oakland CA
Oct 1989 Gallery 601, SF CA
Jan 1990 Ambiance, Eureka CA
May 1990 Pacific Art League, Palo Alto CA
Jun 1990 Ambiance, Eureka CA (one man)
Sep 1990 Warner Roberts Gallery, Palo Alto CA (one man)
Apr 1991 Eureka Photo Annual Exhibition
May 1994 Comfort Gallery, Haverford PA
Nov 1995 Pro Arts, Oakland CA
May 1996 Pacific Printmaking Exhibition, University of Hawaii @ Hilo
Mar 1998 The Photography Gallery, Indianapolis IN (one man)
Apr 2016 Ellington-White Contemporary Gallery, Fayetteville NC
Jul 2016 Site: Brooklyn, Brooklyn NY
Sep 2016 Hapeville Museum, Hapeville GA
Oct 2016 Williamsburg Historical Center, Brooklyn NY
Apr 2017 Arts Clayton, Jonesboro GA (Juror’s award)
Sep 2017 Hapeville Museum, Hapeville GA
Sep 2017 SE Photography Center, Greenville SC
Sep 2017 Atlanta Photographer’s’ Group, APG Buckhead, Atlanta GA
Oct 2017 The Photo Show, Arts Clayton, Jonesboro GA (awarded curator’s First Prize)
Oct 2017 Providence Ctr for Photographic Arts, Providence RI (Julie Grahame, curator)
Nov2017 SE Photography Center, Greenville SC
Dec 2017 Atlanta Photographer’s’ Group, Atlanta GA Jun 2018 BG Project Space Gallery, Santa Monica CA
Jul/Aug 2018 TAG Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Jun/Aug 2018 Marietta/Cobb Museum of Art, Marietta GA Nov 2018 Novel Experience, Zebulon GA (one man)
Nov 2018 SXSE Photo Gallery, Molena GA (Julie Grahame, curator)
Nov 2018 Arts Clayton, Jonesboro GA
Nov 2018 Atlanta Photography Group, Atlanta GA May 2019 Danville (Virginia) Museum of Fine Arts and History (one man)
Jun 2019 Soho Photo Gallery, NY NY (Julie Grahame curated)
Aug 2019 BG Project Space Gallery, Santa Monica CA
Sep 2019 Columbus State University, Columbus, GA
Oct 2019 Arts Clayton Juried Photo Show
Oct 2019 Association of Significant Cemeteries of Europe annual meeting, Ghent, Belgium
Nov 2019 SXSE Photo Gallery, Molena, GA
Feb 2020 Arts Clayton Annual Juried Fine Art Show, Jonesboro GA
Mar 2020 Griffin Museum, Boston, MA
Sep 2020 Rankin Photography Center, Columbus State U, Columbus, GA (one man, postponed due to COVID)
Sep 2020 Portfolio Silver award, San Francisco Bay Intl Photo Awards
Nov 2020 SXSE Photo Gallery, Molena, GA
Mar 2021 Atlanta Photography Group members’ show
Jun 2021 Dalton Gallery, Agnes Scott College, Decatur GA
Jun 2021 Arts Clayton, Jonesboro GA
Sep 2021 Alexandria Museum September Exhibition, Alexandria LA
Oct 2021 Arts Clayton, Jonesboro GA
Nov 2021 Southeast Center for Photography, Greenville, SC
Nov 2021 Griffin Museum, Winchester, MA
Dec 2021 Atlanta Photography Group members’ show
Feb 2022 Juror’s Choice, Atlanta Photography Group
Aug - Nov 2022 September Exhibition, Alexandria Museum of Art, Alexandria, LA
Oct - Nov 2022 Montgomery Photography Exhibition Montgomery AL
Oct 2022 SXSE Gallery Molena, GA
Nov 2022 Center for Photographic Art, Carmel, CA
Feb 2023 Atlanta Photography Group Atlanta GA
Jun 2023 Arts Clayton Jonesboro GA
Jan-Feb 2024 Griffin Museum, Winchester MA
Work is in permanent collection of the Danville VA Museum of Fine Art and the Griffin Museum of Photography, Boston, MA.
Works by J. Carson Barnes in private collections throughout the US and Sweden, Italy, Brazil, and Portugal.