Barnett Newman

Barnett Newman was an American painter, lithographer and sculptor of Jewish origin, a prominent representative of Abstract Expressionism and Colour Field painting. In the history of fine art, the master is called the model of high modernism, the forerunner of minimalism, an existentialist and spiritual artist, drawing inspiration from Jewish mysticism.

Barnett Newman destroyed all of his early works, which he created over the 20 years of his life until 1944. For the rest of his career, he created few – about 120 paintings and became known as one of the outstanding artists of America only when he was around 60 years old.

Barnett Newman was a key participant in the Abstract Expressionist movement and Colour Field painting (a term coined by American historian and avant-garde theorist Clement Greenberg). It developed in the United States from the second half of the 1940s: Newman was convinced that the creation of a work of art was an exclusively spiritual act, and colour was an object, not a means of painting.

Newman led a dialogue with the older generation of abstract artists. In the use of primary colours, he disputed the ideas of his predecessors – representatives of Neoplasticism. In particular, the concepts of Piet Mondrian who believed that paintings reflect the physical world. Newman often criticized this idea for its systematic nature – his approach to colour was more intuitive.

Newman was a well-known master of Abstract Expressionism and influenced the younger generation of artists. However, in some cases, the colours of his followers had a superficial quality, which lacked the spiritual and emotional impact expressed in the paintings of the Colour Field of Newman.

Key ideas:

– Receiving a degree in philosophy from the City College of New York, Barnett Newman studied in the League of Art Students. There, he made friends with Expressionist Adolf Gottlieb, who introduced the beginning painter to New York artists and famous gallery owners. The artist’s early expressionist works have not survived – the author destroyed them, having come to a mature style by 1945.

– Barnett Newman was convinced that modernity, the post-war years, overshadowed by fear and tragedy, have made traditional styles and objects of art invalid. In his article reminiscent of a manifesto, the artist wrote, “the old standards of beauty are no longer inappropriate, and only the new can bring modern humanity out of its stupor”.

– The artist stated that any art worthy of its name should be addressed to life and a man, to the categories of nature and tragedy. He insisted on the rich emotional content of the work, although during his life his work provoked misunderstanding and accusations of “emptiness”.

– Abstract painter and minimalist Newman believed that his work could cause a sense of self-awareness in people when watched closely. Once he posted instructions that called on visitors to become at a very close distance to his canvases at the gallery.

– The method of the American painter and sculptor, in which the usual dilemma of the object and the earth is avoided, inspired him to create a unique symbol. The author called it “zipper”. According to Newman, it can involve the viewer standing in front of the picture.

– Despite the complete abstraction in his paintings, their author drew inspiration from the spiritual legacy of mankind; mostly from Jewish mysticism. Therefore, descriptive names for works were important to him; for example, “Eve”, “Adam”, etc.

– Newman’s works are a decisive break with figurative abstraction. Like Mark Rothko, he is considered the leading representative of Colour Field painting. This art movement, which developed in the USA in the late 1940s and early 1950s, is considered in art history as a kind of Abstract Expressionism. However, it is increasingly classified as a kind of Minimalism.