Page 29 - Studio International - February 1970

The stance of Barnett Newman

Barbara Reise

For me and many others, Barnett Newman old subject matter of nature, of still life,
establishes a prickly active presence of that the figure and formal abstraction. It is a
something which has to do with the essence of debt that I willingly admit. But I found
being an artist and a human being. His stan- their dogmas, their subject-matter based on
dards of excellence and integrity for himself Freud and Marx, their techniques, and
and everyone else are so awesomely wide- their failure to get away from the anecdote,
ranging that little has been written on him to be without interest to me. My paintings
and that has been inadequate and fragmentary.' are, in fact, a confrontation with Surreal-
No wonder, for the scope of his stance is such ism. Just as they are a confrontation with
that no simplistic verbal categories fit: known abstraction.' 4
primarily as a painter, he also expresses him- Certainly this double sort of confrontation is
self in sculpture, writing, and even archi- explicit in Newman's paintings between 1945
tecture; his interests, arguments, and concerns and 1948. The mythic sensibility, primitive
range through philosophy, mythology, anthro- sexual allusions, human drama, and un-
pology, ornithology, palaeontology, religion, structured spaces of dreams associated with
politics, music-as well as the history of art, Surrealism are infused into the 'abstract' 2
criticism, aesthetics, and linguistics. He is the language of circles, lines, and other almost-
modern Renaissance Man Old Master: ac- geometrical shapes. The 'circle' in Pagan
cepting categories respected through human Void has less heritage in the geometry of
history, but always re-examining and re- Bauhaus-Kandinsky than in the metaphysical
making them within and through his own sensuosity of the sexual generative act. In
contributions. Other artists adapt; Newman's Euclidean Abyss and Genetic Moment of 1947,
art generates knowledge, terror, courage, two linear bands enact a drama of sexual
pleasure, life; expressive of a context as attraction and confrontation across an area
historically particular as it is universally time- as spatially mysterious as man's subconscious
less. or prehistoric past. If these bands can be read
I think that this generative quality has much representationally as 'figures' from some
to do with his manner of working. He is nameless geometric form or primordial life
always direct in re-beginning at the beginning. viewed through a microscope, their essential
He uses no preparatory drawings, nor does he character is that of human gravity-defying
apply a theoretical system or ritualized verticality whose colour and visual solidity 3
methodology. And he acts only when he holds tautly to the picture plane and its
thinks it is (morally) right: when he feels physical limits. This 'pure plastic' vitality is
passionately that he has something to express present even in Genetic Moment's allusion to
of importance beyond himself-in a painting,
an essay, or a one-man exhibition. In these
statements, he is ruthless in limiting his lan-
guage to the rudimentary essentials for clarity 1 Walter Hopps has some beautiful things to say in his
of expression : 'For it is only the pure idea that tiny gem of an introduction to Newman's work for the
has meaning. Everything else has everything U.S.A. contribution to the 1965 Sao Paulo Bienal.
More informative is the mini-monograph by Thomas
else.' 2
Hess on Newman (Walker & Co., 1969) which also
Part of the 'everything else' rejected by
has a very complete bibliography; Hess says little about
Newman has always been stylistic dogmas. Newman's work, and his armchair art-world sociology
Faced with the 1930s American fashion for is less interesting than the accurately checked and
the shoddy content and flaccid form of prolific biographical information. The best visual anal-
ysis of Newman's work and its relation to current art
`Social Realism' and the empty rigidity of
in New York is Betsy Baker's 'Barnett Newman in a New
pseudo-Mondrian geometric 'Abstraction',
Light' (Art News, February 1969) which unfortunately
`In 1940, some of us woke up to find ourselves deals only with recent work. I have tried not to dupli-
without hope- to find that painting did not cate information and insights offered in these writings.
really exist.' 3 The immigration of the Surreal- Most of the others I've found un-useful; Newman on
Newman is most interesting-and his interview with
ists during World War II opened up new
D. G. Seckler ('Frontiers of Space', Art in America,
possibilities, but presented equally dogmatic
Summer 1962) gives a number of clear answers to
limitations : questions posed by a wary layman. Genesis—The Break 1946
Oil on canvas
`The fact is that I was in opposition to the 2 Newman, in his introduction to 'The Ideographic 24 x 27 in.
Surrealists. No question that the Surrealists Picture', Betty Parsons Gallery, New York, January Coll: Dr Ruth Stephan Franklin
20 - February 8, 1947. 2
made a great contribution by showing that Pagan Void 1946
3 Barnett Newman, statement in 'Jackson Pollock: An
it was possible to paint a subjective thought, Oil on canvas. 33 x 38 in. Coll: Annalee Newman
Artists' Symposium, Part I', Art News, April 1967.
a feeling, a subjective idea. No question 4 Barnett Newman, Letter to the Editor, Art News, 3
Euclidian Abyss 1946-7
that the Surrealists freed painting from its Summer 1968. Mixed media. 28 x 22 in. Coll: Annalee Newman
49