Will Barnet (born 1911), Portrait of RRN, 1965. Oil on canvas, 67 x 43 in. (170.2 x 109.2 cm). Grey Art Gallery, New York University Art Collection. Gift of Roy Neuberger, 1966.13. © Will Barnet. Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY

In his early work, Will Barnet combined intimist evocations of family life with a modernist sense of form, while teaching printmaking and painting at the Art Students League, and other schools. Like many artists of the time, he often found inspiration in Native American art, arranging emblematic forms within grids of vertical bands derived from Synthetic Cubism.

Barnet joined the advance guard of American painting in the late 1950s, when he abandoned the Cubist grid in favor of curved, interlocking shapes—a style he employed in a series of iconic portraits of his family and friends, among them Portrait of RRN. The subject, Roy R. Neuberger, sits in a throne-like armchair and sports a debonair black overcoat, whose regal draping dramatically counters the thrust of his crossed legs. This dynamic contrapposto conveys Neuberger’s reputation as an astute businessman and progressive art collector.