The 10 Best Booths at the Armory Show, From Pregnant Cyborgs to Sleek Figuration

Jennifer Bartlett, the painter who died earlier this year, gets a tender tribute courtesy of Philadelphia’s Locks Gallery, which gave her a number of shows during her lifetime. Bartlett’s paintings are plainspoken and seemingly rather simple, and for that reason, they’re likely to be missed by many visitors to his fair. Let me suggest, however, that you make a moment for Bayshore Walk (1976–77), a grouping of 72 paintings that are all done in enamel on baked steel sheets. Divided neatly into nine-piece groups that assemble to form coherent images, this painting features, in one half, four house-like forms, each in different colors. In the other half, these structures dissolve into messes of colorful strokes, their minimal roofs just barely visible beneath. It suggests a contemporary take on Monet’s famed “Meules” paintings, which chronicle a haystack as it changes amid shifting weather and daylight conditions. It also offers a slow, spare respite amid the crush of the Armory Show, where good art can go unseen amid old-fashion wheeling and dealing.

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