After earning an MFA at Yale University in the 1960s, Bartlett moved to New York. There she soon became part of the artistic conversation of the late 60s and 70s. Influenced by artist Sol Lewitt's 1967 Artforum magazine treatise Paragraphs on Conceptual Art, Bartlett's early work was fastidious and geometric, with abstract subject matter and unpredictable color palettes. Over her 50-year career, Bartlett's work has continually transformed in size, technique, and subject matter.