Barnett Newman

Does a man want to be an artist? Is it like he wants to be a priest, or a lawyer? Is the artist that kind of profession? Or, as I once actually wrote, I think every man is an artist. An artist is a matter of my birthright... what I'd like to be is a man in the world. And I paint in order to do a painting, not to... make myself into a so-called artist... I'm impelled to do something, to say something.

- Barnett Newman quoted in American Artists, a 1966 TV Show on New York's educational television network; as cited by Caroline A. Jones in ‘Machine in the Studio: Constructing the Postwar American Artist’, 1998. p.84

ABSTRACT EXPRESSIONIST AMERICAN PAINTER.

Born: 29 January 1905, New York.
Died: 4 July 1970, New York.
Education: Art Students League, City College of New York

Portrait of Barnett Newman, Alexander Liberman, c. 1961, photograph, The Menil Collection.

Portrait of Barnett Newman, Alexander Liberman, c. 1961, photograph, The Menil Collection.


Barnett Newman was a major figure in Abstract Expressionism, and considered one of the first Color-Field painters and forefather of post-painterly abstraction. Born and bred in New York City, Newman was the son of Jewish immigrants from Poland. He began his art studies at the Art Students League during his high school years and continued his drawing classes there whilst undertaking a philosophy degree from City College of New York. During his studies at the Art Students League he befriended Adolph Gottlieb who introduced him to various New York artists. The combination of art and philosophy would enable Newman to become one of the crucial names of the New York School. 

Although Newman would go on to be a leading figure of Abstract Expressionism, he held various positions before maturing in his artistic career and did not take up painting until he was thirty years of age. Following the completion of his studies he worked at his father’s clothing manufacturing business until the financial crash of 1929. He then went on to take up various roles including substitute art teacher, magazine writer and critic.

During the 1940s Newman experienced a period of doubt, almost giving up painting entirely. Many of the works he produced during this time he destroyed, believing that they were not worthy of serious consideration. It was not until 1944 that Newman felt he had matured as an artist, inspired in part by the influence of Surrealism, abandoning his figurative approach to art. Although late to the scene, Newman’s previous experience assisted him in writing catalogues forewords and exhibition reviews, ultimately helping to establish himself as an artist and to promote his work. Out of all the Abstract Expressionists, Newman was the artist who wrote the most about art. He would later on in his career write prolifically on subjects around philosophy and art for Tiger’s Eye, a magazine on are in literature. The most famous topics he covered included, in art and beauty, the sublime and abstraction.

The most recognisable of Newman’s works is his trademark ‘zip’ paintings which emerged in 1948. These paintings are often huge in scale, monochromatic or minimal in colour and characterised by a vertical strip dividing the canvas from top to bottom. It’s these works in particular which led Newman to be regarded as one of the foremost Color-Field painters and leader of post-painterly abstraction. When Onement I, the first of his zip paintings, was exhibited in 1950 at the Betty Parsons gallery it was heavily criticised by the public and on several occasions even defaced.

Newman’s techniques and processes differed greatly to the likes of other Color-Field painters such as Mark Rothko and Clyfford Still - he rejected expressive brushwork, with many of his works showing little, if any, brushwork whatsoever. Instead, Newman employed hard-edged areas of flat colour which hugely impacted the second wave Abstract Expressionists and inspired Minimalism which would emerge in the 1960s, a period in which Newman had finally gained recognition in the art world.

Adam, Barnett Newman, 1951-2, oil on canvas, Tate Modern, London.

Adam, Barnett Newman, 1951-2, oil on canvas, Tate Modern, London.

Onement I, Barnett Newman, 1948, oil on canvas, Museum of Modern Art, New York.

Onement I, Barnett Newman, 1948, oil on canvas, Museum of Modern Art, New York.

Onement V, Barnett Newman, 1952, oil on canvas, New York.

Onement V, Barnett Newman, 1952, oil on canvas, New York.

Canto VII, Barnett Newman, 1963–4, lithograph on paper, Tate Modern, London.

Canto VII, Barnett Newman, 1963–4, lithograph on paper, Tate Modern, London.

Kerry Messam