Barnett Newman

Barnett Newman (1905-1970), a pseudonym for Baruch Newman (his parents were Jewish-Polish immigrants), is counted as one of the most important representatives of American Abstract Expressionism, with his color field paintings, along with Mark Rothko, Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning. He was the first to paint in such a large format. Newman developed his style in the course of his career out of surrealism. At first his color field paintings, which he started in the 1940’s, were not well received. His influence was recognised later by succeeding generations and he was seen as one of the most important 20th-century American artists. He objected to being linked to an established group or artistic style. His varied oeuvre, which does not only consist of paintings but also of drawings, prints, sculptures and even an architectural model, concerns on the one hand colour and space, but on the other hand, meaning. Occasionally Newman himself referred to his style as ‘abstract expression’ or ‘the abstract sublime.’ In general, Newman’s art is about the experience of standing in front of the work. The experience that he wants to give the spectator standing close to the painting is an overwhelming physical and emotional experience of one’s own self and one’s own place in the universe. In his book The Sublime Is Now Newman writes about his ideas about beauty and that it should not be the intention of art. Conversely the task of art is to bring about the greatest, preferably metaphysical, experiences.