Onement I

The Museum of Modern Art, New York (the USA).

Oil on canvas, oil for masking.

Newman saw a breakthrough in his career in this work. This is the first canvas that embodies what the artist later called the “zipper”, referring to the vertical strip in the composition. This motive played a central role in many of his subsequent works. The name of the picture represents the archaic meaning of the word “atonement”, which also means “the process of transformation into a single whole”. For Newman, this unevenly drawn vertical line on a flat field of colour does not divide the canvas – instead, it combines both sides, attracting the audience with emotional minimalism. The artist created a series of six paintings with the same theme – Onement I – VI. Some art historians compare Newman’s lightning lines with the extremely slender figures of Alberto Giacometti.