Barnett Newman

Barnett Newman (b. 1905, New York; d. 1970, New York) was a major figure of Abstract Expressionism. Newman’s work was heavily shaped by his undergraduate degree in philosophy and avid political activism. Although he took classes at the Art Students League in high school, he did not begin seriously painting until age 30. Newman has his first solo exhibition in 1950 at Betty Parsons Gallery. Newman is most known for his “zip” paintings, featuring a narrow vertical stripe disrupting a field of color, a language he first articulated in Onement I, 1948. In a 1970 interview he referred to Onement I as “my first painting—that is, where I felt that I had moved into an area for myself that was completely me.” He believed in the power of abstraction to communicate the most elemental aspects of human existence, and his work, centered on the sublime, conveys the presence of the individual spirit.

At the time of his death, the majority of his paintings, works on paper, and sculptures were still in the artist’s possession. Following his death, Annalee Newman, his widow, began to place Newman’s estate in public institutions. His work can be found in The Art Institute of Chicago,; Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio; Detroit Institute of the Arts, Michigan; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Museum of Modern Art, New York; National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; National Gallery, Washington, D.C.; Saint Louis Art Museum, Missouri; San Francisco Museum of Art; Toledo Museum of Art, Ohio; University of Washington, Seattle; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.  

Selected Solo Exhibitions

Craig Starr Gallery, New York, Barnett Newman, March 9–April 15, 2023.             

Kunstmuseum, Basel, Barnett Newman: Drawings and Prints, April 19–August 7, 2016.

The Menil Collection, Houston, Barnett Newman: The Late Work, March 27–August 2, 2015.

Miho Museum, Koka, Japan, Barnett Newman’s The Stations of the Cross, March 14–June 7, 2015.

Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Who’s Afraid of Red, Yellow and Blue III, April 24–July 21, 2014.

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Selected Group Exhibitions

Jewish Museum, New York, After ‘The Wild’: Contemporary Art from The Barnett and Annalee Newman Foundation Collection, March 24–October 1, 2023.

Museum of Modern Art, New York, Planes of Color, October 12, 2019–January 2, 2023.

Museum of Modern Art, New York, Actional Painting I, October 12, 2019–January 2, 2023.

Museum of Modern Art, New York, Sculpture from the Collection 1960-1969, June 25, 2016–July 14, 2017.

Royal Academy of Arts, London, Abstract Expressionism, September 24, 2016–January 2, 2017.

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Selected Publications 

Schreyach, Michael. Totality: Abstraction and Meaning in the Art of Barnett Newman. San Francisco: University of California Press, 2023.

Cooper, Harry, and Tetsuya Oshima. Barnett Newman’s The Station of the Cross. Japan: Miho Museum, 2015.

Epley, Brad, Michelle White, and Sarah K. Rich. Barnett Newman: The Late Work. Texas: The Menil Collection, 2015.

Cernuschi, Claude. Barnett Newman and Heideggerian Philosophy. New Jersey: Farleigh Dickinson University Press, 2012.

Shiff, Richard. Barnett Newman Paintings. New York: Craig Starr Gallery, 2011.

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