Barnett Newman

Barnett Newman’s paintings are among the most radical artistic statements made by post-war American artists in opposition to traditional tendencies in European art. Essential features of his work include sharply defined imagery, clarity and severe coloration. In his late work The way II, Newman sets up a stark clash of colour values. The red field in the centre is flanked on either side by black strips, each of which measures a third of the red plane. The frame of black amplifies the red to its greatest intensity. The emphasis clearly lies on the vertical momentum of the forms, which uncompromisingly shoot upwards and seem almost to reach out beyond themselves and the canvas. This combination of colour fields opens up new realms of experience in the boundless quest to capture the intangible and the sublime.