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'{{Infobox Artist | bgcolour = silver | name = Barnett Newman | image = Newman-Onement 1.jpg | imagesize = 250px | caption = ''Onement 1'', 1948. [[Museum of Modern Art]], New York. The first example of Newman using the so-called "zip" to define the spatial structure of his paintings | birthname = | birthdate = {{birth date |1905|1|25|}} | location = [[New York City, New York]] | deathdate = {{death date and age |1970|7|4|1905|1|25|}} | deathplace = | nationality = [[United States|American]] | field = [[Painting]] | training = | movement = [[Abstract Expressionism]], [[Color Field painting]] | works = ''The Stations of the Cross,'' ''Vir Heroicus Sublimis'' | patrons = | influenced by = | influenced = | awards = }} <!-- [[Image:Newman-Onement 1.jpg|thumb|175px|''Onement 1'', 1948. [[Museum of Modern Art]], New York. The first example of Newman using the so-called "zip" to define the spatial structure of his paintings.]] --> '''Barnett Newman''' (January 29 1905 &ndash; July 4 1970) was an American artist. He is seen as one of the major figures in [[abstract expressionism]] and one of the foremost of the [[color field]] painters. ==Youth== Newman was born in New York City, the son of Jewish immigrants from Russian Poland.<ref name="foundation"> [http://www.barnettnewman.org/chronology.php The Barnett Newman Foundation website: Chronology of the Artist's Life page]</ref> He studied philosophy at the [[City College of New York]] and worked in his father's business manufacturing clothing.<ref name="foundation"/> From the 1930s he made paintings, said to be in an [[expressionist]] style, but eventually destroyed all these works. A well respected writer and critic who also organized exhibitions and wrote catalogs, Newman later became a member of the [[The Art of This Century Gallery|Uptown Group]]. ==Career== {{Cquote2|What is the explanation of the seemingly insane drive of man to be painter and poet if it is not an act of defiance against mans fall and an assertion that he return to the Garden of Eden? For the artists are the first men.|Barnett Newman <ref>Abstract Expressionism, by Barbara Hess, Taschen, 2005, pg 40</ref>}} Barnett Newman wrote catalogue forewords and reviews before having his first solo show at the Betty Parsons Gallery in 1948. Soon after his first exhibition, Newman remarked in one of the Artists' Session at Studio 35: "We are in the process of making the world, to a certain extent, in our own image."<ref>''Barnett Newman Selected Writings and Interviews'', (ed.) by John P. O'Neill, pgs.: 240-241, University of California Press, 1990.</ref> Utilizing his writing skills, Newman fought every step of the way to reinforce his newly established image as an artist and to promote his work. An example is his letter in April 9, 1955, "Letter to [[Sidney Janis]]: ---It is true that [[Mark Rothko|Rothko]] talks the fighter. He fights, however, to submit to the philistine world. My struggle against bourgeois society has involved the total rejection of it."<ref>''Barnett Newman Selected Writings and Interviews'', (ed.) by John P. O'Neill, p.: 201, University of California Press, 1990).</ref> Throughout the 1940s he worked in a [[surrealist]] vein before developing his mature style. This is characterised by areas of color separated by thin vertical lines, or "zips" as Newman called them. In the first works featuring zips, the color fields are variegated, but later the colors are pure and flat. Newman himself thought that he reached his fully mature style with the ''Onement'' series (from 1948). The zips define the spatial structure of the painting, whilst simultaneously dividing and uniting the composition. The zip remained a constant feature of Newman's work throughout his life. In some paintings of the 1950s, such as ''The Wild'', which is eight feet tall by one and a half inches wide, the zip is all there is to the work. Newman also made a few [[sculpture]]s which are essentially three-dimensional zips. Although Newman's paintings appear to be purely abstract, and many of them were originally untitled, the names he later gave them hinted at specific subjects being addressed, often with a Jewish theme. Two paintings from the early 1950s, for example, are called ''Adam'' and ''Eve'' (see [[Adam and Eve]]), and there is also ''[[Uriel]]'' (1954) and ''[[Abraham]]'' (1949), a very dark painting, which as well as being the name of a biblical patriarch, was also the name of Newman's father, who had died in 1947. [[Image:Newman-Who's Afraid of Red, Yellow and Blue.jpg|thumb|left|175px|''Who's Afraid of Red, Yellow and Blue?'', 1966. Typical of Newman's later work, with the use of pure and vibrant color.]] ''The Stations of the Cross'' series of black and white paintings (1958-66), begun shortly after Newman had recovered from a [[myocardial infarction|heart attack]], is usually regarded as the peak of his achievement. The series is subtitled "Lema sabachthani" - "why have you forsaken me" - words spoken by [[Christ]] on the cross. Newman saw these words as having universal significance in his own time. The series has also been seen as a memorial to the victims of the [[holocaust]]. Newman's late works, such as the ''Who's Afraid of Red, Yellow and Blue'' series, use vibrant, pure colors, often on very large canvases - ''Anna's Light'' (1968), named in memory of his mother who had died in 1965, is his largest work, twenty-eight feet wide by nine feet tall. Newman also worked on [[shaped canvas]]es late in life, with ''Chartres'' (1969), for example, being triangular, and returned to sculpture, making a small number of sleek pieces in [[steel]]. These later paintings are executed in [[acrylic paint]] rather than the [[oil paint]] of earlier pieces. Of his sculptures, ''[[Broken Obelisk]]'' (1968) is the most monumental and best-known, depicting an inverted obelisk whose point balances on the apex of a pyramid. [[Image:Brokenobelisk.jpg|thumb|right|175px|''Broken Obelisk'', installed here in [[Houston, Texas|Houston]] next to the [[Rothko Chapel]] is dedicated to [[Martin Luther King, Jr.]]]] Newman also made a series of [[lithograph]]s, the ''18 Cantos'' (1963-64) which, according to Newman, are meant to be evocative of music. He also made a small number of [[etching]]s. Newman is generally classified as an [[abstract expressionist]] on account of his working in New York City in the 1950s, associating with other artists of the group and developing an abstract style which owed little or nothing to European art. However, his rejection of the expressive brushwork employed by other abstract expressionists such as [[Clyfford Still]] and [[Mark Rothko]], and his use of hard-edged areas of flat color, can be seen as a precursor to [[post painterly abstraction]] and the [[minimalism|minimalist]] works of artists such as [[Frank Stella]]. Newman was unappreciated as an artist for much of his life, being overlooked in favour of more colorful characters such as [[Jackson Pollock]]. The influential critic [[Clement Greenberg]] wrote enthusiastically about him, but it was not until the end of his life that he began to be taken really seriously. He was, however, an important influence on many younger painters. Newman died in New York City of a heart attack in 1970.<ref name="foundation"/> Nine years after his death, Newman's widow Annalee founded the Barnett Newman Foundation. The Foundation not only functions as his official Estate, but also serves "to encourage the study and understanding of Barnett Newman's life and works."<ref>[http://www.barnettnewman.org/about.php The Barnett Newman Foundation website: About the Foundation page]</ref> The Foundation was instrumental in creating Newman's Catalogue Raisonne in 2004.<ref>[http://www.barnettnewman.org/catalogue.php The Barnett Newman Foundation website: Catalogue Raisonne page]</ref> The U.S. copyright representative for the Barnett Newman Foundation is the [[Artists Rights Society]]<ref>[http://arsny.com/requested.html Most frequently requested artists list of the Artists Rights Society]</ref>. ==See also== *''[[Voice of Fire]]'' painted by Newman in 1967. gayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy who r u ==Books== * Marika Herskovic, [http://www.worldcatlibraries.org/oclc/50253062&tab=holdings ''American Abstract Expressionism of the 1950s An Illustrated Survey,''] (New York School Press, 2003.) ISBN 0-9677994-1-4 ==References== <references/> ==External links== {{Wikiquote}} *[http://www.barnettnewman.org/ The Barnett Newman Foundation] - *[http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/exhibitions/newman/ Newman exhibition at the Tate Gallery] *[http://www.philamuseum.org/micro_sites/exhibitions/newman/index.html Newman exhibition at the Philadelphia Museum of Art] *[http://www.tate.org.uk/servlet/ArtistWorks?cgroupid=999999961&artistid=1699&page=1&sole=y&collab=y&attr=y&sort=default&tabview=worklist Newman's page at the Tate Gallery] (includes images of the ''18 Cantos'' and other works) {{DEFAULTSORT:Newman, Barnett}} [[Category:1905 births]] [[Category:1970 deaths]] [[Category:Abstract expressionist artists]] [[Category:American painters]] [[Category:Jewish painters]] [[Category:Jewish American artists]] [[Category:Artists from New York]] [[Category:Modern painters]] [[Category:American artists]] [[Category:Art Students League of New York alumni]] [[Category:Jewish artists]] [[de:Barnett Newman]] [[es:Barnett Newman]] [[fr:Barnett Newman]] [[it:Barnett Newman]] [[nl:Barnett Newman]] [[ja:バーネット・ニューマン]] [[no:Barnett Newman]] [[pl:Barnett Newman]] [[pt:Barnett Newman]] [[ru:Ньюман, Барнетт]] [[sv:Barnett Newman]]'