Air: 24 Hours, Five P.M.

1991–92
Not on view
This is a work from Bartlett’s ambitious series AIR: 24 Hours, a group of 24 paintings, one for each hour of the day. The cycle documents the passage of time, depicting a different area of the artist’s home and studio in Manhattan. Following a set of self-imposed rules, the paintings share an underlying grid-based structure, the constituent elements of which always add up to the number sixty. Bartlett’s systematic approach is belied by the paintings’ spatial instability, enigmatic character, and absurd, irreconcilable details. Things appear (and re-appear) in these works that defy explanation. Throughout her series, Bartlett makes public some of these most personal aspects of her daily life while retaining a sense of ironic distance and mysterious inaccessibility.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Air: 24 Hours, Five P.M.
  • Artist: Jennifer Bartlett (American, Long Beach, California 1941–2022 Amagansett, New York)
  • Date: 1991–92
  • Medium: Oil on canvas
  • Dimensions: 84 × 84 in. (213.4 × 213.4 cm)
  • Classification: Paintings
  • Credit Line: Purchase, Lila Acheson Wallace Gift, 1993
  • Object Number: 1993.63
  • Rights and Reproduction: © Jennifer Bartlett 2013 Trust
  • Curatorial Department: Modern and Contemporary Art

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