Barnett Newman

Barnett Newman (1905–1970) was an American painter, sculptor and writer whose radical approach to colour, scale and space helped redefine Abstract Expressionism. Instead of using energetic brushwork, Newman created expansive fields of colour interrupted by narrow vertical bands that became known as “zips.”

The zip first emerged decisively in Onement I in 1948. It was not simply a line dividing the canvas. It activated the surrounding colour and established a direct relationship between the painting, the architectural space and the viewer’s body. In monumental works such as Vir Heroicus Sublimis, Newman used scale to make viewing an immediate physical encounter rather than a detached contemplation of composition.

Newman understood abstraction as a way to confront fundamental questions of existence, creation, tragedy and the sublime. His austere visual language acquired particular moral significance in the aftermath of the Holocaust and the Second World War. This dimension is central to The Stations of the Cross: Lema Sabachthani, a cycle of fourteen paintings followed by a final coda, created between 1958 and 1966 around the experience of suffering and abandonment.

This tag gathers articles, exhibition reviews and critical perspectives on Barnett Newman, his paintings, sculptures and writings, as well as his influence on Color Field painting, Minimalism and contemporary approaches to colour, scale and contemplative space.