Barnett Newman

Barnett Newman – Many paths lead to art

Barnett Newman was born the son of a Jewish immigrant on 29 January 1905 in New York and grew up with several siblings in the Bronx and Manhattan. He was already interest in art in high school, joined the Art Students League, and attended art classes during his philosophy studies at the City College of New York. He made contact with important gallery owners and artists in New York through his painter friend Adolph Gottlieb, but after graduating, initially worked in his father’s clothing factory until it became a victim of the great stock market crash in 1929. Newman subsequently eked out a living as a substitute art teacher, worked as a magazine editor, and was an unsuccessful candidate in a mayoral election. Following his marriage, he tried for a time to find his way into art, studied biology, composed articles for museum catalogues, wrote art critiques, and organised exhibitions. Only in 1937, did he seriously start to actively pain, encouraged by his friendship with the gallerist Betty Parsons, who introduced him to mark Rothko, Clyfford Still and Jackson Pollock.

Monochrome colour fields with a zip

Barnett Newman found the longed-for inspiration through his acquaintance with Surrealist artists and focused entirely on the newly discovered style. In doing so, he took an extremely radical approach and destroyed his previous, still figurative works. He maintained this approach also in later years, which is why a considerable part of Barnett Newman’s art has not survived. The year 1948 and the creation of the famous zip brought about Newman’s breakthrough. To what extent working in his father’s clothing factory contributed to the idea of the zip must remain open – it is certain, however, that Newman first used this trademark in the picture Onement. The zip was a vertical, coloured stripe without beginning or end, adding structure. The first presentation of the new series of pictures consisting of monochrome colour fields run through with a zip, was, however disastrous for the artist: he hardly sold any pictures and the audience reacted with almost unanimous rejection. Some of the works were defaced or cut up. It was not until the 1960s that the situation eased for Barnett Newman.

Acclaimed, disputed and world famous

Despite the gradually growing acceptance, Barnett Newman still had to deal with extreme hostility and critique. It went so far that he declined to participate in exhibitions to avoid incriminating controversy. Travels through Europe increased his fame, however, and he presented his art at the 2nd and 4th documenta in Kassel and at the São Paolo Biennale. He is considered a trailblazer and father-figure by a new generation of artists, whilst he saw himself as a Romantic, deeply moved by an article from Harold Rosenberg, in which the work of Barnett Newman was described as a “shortcut to the unattainable”. 

Barnett Newman died from a heart attack on 4 July 1970 in New York.