Tina Barney, Players, 2010. Image Courtesy of Janet Borden.
Tina Barney’s latest show, Players, at Janet Borden features the elegant, highly detailed, large-format photographs for which the artist is best known.  The exhibition also marks the release of a book by the same name in which Barney closely examines instances of performance and theatricality.
The show addresses Barney’s long-standing engagement with the portrayal of upper-class American and European families and their dwellings, questioning the role of environment and visual signifiers associated with wealth. Players depicts an expanded visual vocabulary emphasizing subject matter ranging from fashion, popular actors, circus performers, and the artist’s family and personal friends. The work examines an intersection between public and private domains, resulting in a more casual-yet-editorializing style that is simultaneously revealing and perpetually curious.
Tina Barney, Players, 2010. Image Courtesy of Janet Borden.
More text and images after the jump…
Tina Barney, New York Stories, W Magazine, 1999 Image © Tina Barney, courtesy Janet Borden, Inc.
Tina Barney, Pelleas and Melisande, Columbia U. School of Arts, 1999 Image © Tina Barney, courtesy Janet Borden, Inc.
Tina Barney, Family Commission with Snake, 2007 Image © Tina Barney, courtesy Janet Borden, Inc.
Some of Barney’s Previous Work, as Featured in her Recent Publication…
Tina Barney, The Young Lady, 2002. Image © Tina Barney, courtesy Janet Borden, Inc.
The large format of the pictures reveal a highly-detailed, textural quality, while retaining a visual tension that is characteristic of Barney’s work. The sternness and authoritative confrontation of the artist’s subjects commands attention, while the elaborately constructed environments in which they are presented intensifies the theatricality of the each image. As Barney describes her objective, “I want to make approaching the image possible. I want every object as clear and precise as possible so that the viewer can really examine them and feel as if they are entering the room.”
Tina Barney, The Students, 2001. Image © Tina Barney, courtesy Janet Borden, Inc.
Tina Barney, The Matador, 2003. Image © Tina Barney, courtesy Janet Borden, Inc.
Tina Barney, The Hands, 2002. Image © Tina Barney, courtesy Janet Borden, Inc.
Tina Barney, The Granddaughter, 2004. Image © Tina Barney, courtesy Janet Borden, Inc.
Tina Barney, The Daughters, 2002. Image © Tina Barney, courtesy Janet Borden, Inc.
Tina Barney, The Ancestor, 2001. Image © Tina Barney, courtesy Janet Borden, Inc.
Tina Barney, Thanksgiving, 1992. Image © Tina Barney, courtesy Janet Borden, Inc.
Tina Barney, The Sunday Times, 1982. Image © Tina Barney, courtesy Janet Borden, Inc.
Tina Barney, Marina and Peter, 1997. Image © Tina Barney, courtesy Janet Borden, Inc.
Tina Barney, Jill and Polly in the Bathroom, 1987. Image © Tina Barney, courtesy Janet Borden, Inc.
Tina Barney, Graham Cracker Box, 1983. Image © Tina Barney, courtesy Janet Borden, Inc.
Tina Barney, Father and Sons, 1996. Image © Tina Barney, courtesy Janet Borden, Inc.
Tina Barney, The Brocade Walls, 2003. Image © Tina Barney, courtesy Janet Borden, Inc.
-M. Phinney
Related Links:
Bomb Magazine interview
Janet Borden Gallery
