Yes, quite.rememberaday wrote:Well there are enough posts for you to form your verdict, my verdict is that Barrett was talented to an extent but with the lack of sufficient artwork it might be a little bit of regression to premature judging.
(PS. it was a dig at Hans Keller, in case none of you understood. )
Still, I think there is room for some more assessment of the various strands of Barrett's visual art.
I find the pop art collage experiments such as Fart Enjoy interesting and very much reflecting London in the mid 60s. I am curious how much Barrett was influenced by the Beats throughout his life ... on one hand his lifestyle in later years was perhaps restricted because of the discomfort he (maybe) felt in social situations and other issues, on the other hand focussing on painting at home for your own enjoyment whilst listening to old jazz recordings could be quite beat.
I think the influence of 'cut up' techniques was present in these collage works and Barrett's lyric writing... I would contend that a lot of stuff on the solo albums cited as evidence of disintegration/ madness/ schizophrenia could come down to this... in the context of Dylan's 'Tarantula' etc... in terms of artistic recognition/ success, I think at that time out of Barrett's various visual styles this might have been the most likely to have gained him recognition, if he'd gone further with it... maybe
Theres another strand of Barrett's visual art based on geometric patterns/ repetition, possibly reflecting philosophical and scientific interest in patterns of nature etc - this perhaps reflected in the solstice drawing (strangely closely resembling the four quarters of colour on the Hipgnosis Wish you Were Here cover), triangular patterns of the 1978 painting, interest in gardening, continual repainting of his house interior in blocks of colour. Or maybe he just liked the appearance of patterns and colours and it was fun like DIY
The later landscape paintings don't break new ground and you could say German Expressionists in early twentieth century did the same to far greater effect, but I think are quite evocative and although sometimes a bit scrappy certainly took some technical and observational skill