Barnett Newman

American, 1905-1970

An originator of Abstract Expressionism, Barnett Newman changed the course of 20th-century American painting. Newman’s monumental color field paintings consist of rectangles of rich, often mono- or bi-chromatic color that, when viewed from close proximity, are meant to confer a powerful spiritual experience, an encounter with the sublime. Newman’s signature “Zip” paintings, the artist’s term for paintings with a narrow vertical stripe dividing planes of color, provide each painting with an architectural frame, such as in his iconic work Vir Heroicus Siblimis (1950-1951).