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BARNETT NEWMAN
The Moment
.
Color screenprint on Plexiglas and wooden stretcher, 1966.
1238x124 mm; 48
3
/
4
x4
7
/
8
inches. Incised signature, date and
numbered 36/125 lower center recto. Published by Multiples,
Inc., NewYork. From
Four on Plexi
.
Newman (1905-1970) was born in the Lower East Side of NewYork
City to Jewish immigrants who hailed from Poland. After moving
uptown to the Bronx following his father’s successful business venture,
Newman attended high school in Manhattan (he often skipped class
to visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art). Newman began taking
drawing classes at the Art Students League during his senior year of
high school, where he befriended Adolph Gottlieb. Receiving a
degree in Philosophy from the City College of NewYork, Newman
spent the next several years helping with his father’s clothing
manufacturing business, taking more drawing classes at the Art
Students League, and working as a substitute art teacher. During this
time he met Mark Rothko at Milton Avery’s home, where young
artists would congregate to sketch, studyAvery’s work and read poetry.
Creatively frustrated, Newman destroyed all the early work he
created from his twenties and thirties and turned his attention
away from painting for a stretch of time. He was a true intellectual
and pursued many other interests (in addition to remaining
involved in the NewYork art world), including photography, the
natural sciences, art theory and curating. Newman began a
working relationship with Betty Parsons in 1944, the same year
that he started drawing again. Soon thereafter, he signed with the
Betty Parsons Gallery and helped Rothko, Clyfford Still and
Jackson Pollock join with her as well.
Newman’s artistic output increased significantly in 1948 (focusing
on fields of color with vertical bands, or “zips” as he dubbed them),
and he had his first solo exhibition at Betty Parsons Gallery. In 1950,
he began working with larger canvasses and at his second solo
exhibition (installed by Pollock, Lee Krasner and Tony Smith), in
1951, he debuted an eighteen-foot painting. Critics unanimously
dismissed the show and in response Newman began retreating from
the mainstream art world, vowing to never show at a commercial
gallery again. From 1958 to 1962, he painted in only black and
white, before utilizing color again in the late 1960s. Critics and
collectors slowly began paying Newman attention, and by the latter
part of his career he was venerated and his work and writings
became a major influence for the next generation of Minimalists.
While best known for his large-scaled, minimal paintings, Newman
experimented with several different types of printmaking.Mourning
the loss of his his brother in 1961,Newman’s good friend Cleve Gray
encouraged him to create lithographs, which he did at the Pratt
Institute Graphic Art Center. Newman was enthusiastic about the
medium and in 1963-64 worked with ULAE in Long Island to
create a series of 18 lithographs. He continued to work with ULAE
over the years and created another print series, this time of etchings,
in 1968. Barnett Newman Foundation 227.
[3,000/5,000]