A current collaboration in Rockland provides the opportunity to enjoy the works of artist Bo Bartlett in two different venues, the Farnsworth Museum and Archipelago Gallery at the Island Institute, just steps apart. The Farnsworth features many large canvases, as well as several cases displaying sketches and journal entries. In what seems a curatorial choice, there is no descriptive labeling per picture proffering an institutional interpretation. We are free, as viewers, to make of these paintings what we will. Undertaking that is part of what makes looking at Bartlett’s paintings so pleasurable. Is an image merely what it presents as, or is there symbolism, layers of meaning? As I spent time looking at the show recently, I tapped a fellow visitor and asked him if he minded talking with me about the painting we were both looking at, sharing his reaction and thoughts. We were in front of “Leviathan.” Our consideration of its many possibilities became a lengthy exchange. I think we both enjoyed the opportunity to work symbols into ideas. It was a creative opportunity for us that the artist and his creative vision and technical expertise provoked, sponsored. How often does a painting hold you in front of it for, say, 30 minutes, and elicit both animated articulation as well as meditative reflection? We could have had, I’m sure, similar conversations in front of other Bartlett paintings throughout the galleries.
The artist himself hints at this potential for interpretation with a quote in the exhibit: “We are all involved in the process of discovering and revealing our inner and outer worlds.” The outer world we see portrayed here is a familiar one of the Maine coast, employing in its iconography ingredients such as fishermen and inhabitants of an island community (Matinicus), boats, gulls, fish, and wide stretches of sky and water. Perhaps because of that, viewers feel invited to probe what that less-familiar inner world could be. A self-portrait in the show suggests that invitation. Bartlett is dressed in the formal all-white cooking uniform of a chef, a bright red pot and one bright red cooked lobster on a table top in front of him. On reflection, we could consider that lobsters come from deep water. And water often symbolizes the realm of the unconscious. The chef/painter has cooked something up for us, taken something raw and wild from the depths — call it primal — and given us something to ingest. On one level, he’s offering lobster al fresco. He’s also — metaphorically — providing sustenance, giving us food for thought.
“Bo Bartlett- Still Point” is at the Farnsworth Art Museum through October 14, 2007. 207.596.6457 or www.farnsworthmuseum.org for more information.