Page 48 - Studio International - February 1970

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Vir Heroicus Sublimis 1950-1
Oil on canvas
95 x 213¼ in.
Coll: Museum of Modern Art, New York
Fractional gift of Mr and Mrs Ben Heller
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Shining Forth (To George) 1961
Oil on canvas
114 x 174in.
Coll: Annalee Newman
Photo: Richard Steinberg

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inch of white; across the widest area there is wider one are on the canvas surface but the to this moment, has this scale. The form and
an inch and a half of a dark, slightly maroon white stripe is that surface. The marks along qualities of the work couldn't exist otherwise.
brown that looks black in the red; a few feet the white stripe are even more intimately on The major division in contemporary art is
further there is a stripe like the first one on the the canvas than the black stripes. The position between that involving the smaller, older
left; a foot or so before the right edge there is of the white stripe is highly ambiguous. It is, scale. There is a lot of uninteresting art in the
a dark yellow, almost raw sienna stripe, the approximately, a negative area that comes United States based on the smaller scale and
colour that was changed. These stripes are forward. Since it is the same surface as the a little that is interesting. The most interesting
described in sequence but of course are seen rectangle of the painting, that is forced European art, except for Klein's which is
at once, and with the areas. forward. The white stripe is like the rest of the broad, is relatively small scaled, judging of
Shining Forth is symmetrical, but obviously white but it's underneath it and yet forward course by what has been seen in New York.
isn't thoroughly symmetrical: the widest of it. The whole surface has to come forward. The large scale is involved with several im-
black stripe runs down the centre; two large, If this didn't occur the black lines would lie portant qualities, each of which forces the
nearly equal halves lie left and right, each slightly in front of the canvas, as most marks existence of the others. Obviously Newman's
including a large area of canvas, a narrow do, and the areas would stand back slightly. paintings are open, as is much recent work,
stripe and a narrow area of canvas. The two The areas are as forward and as definite as the though not all in the same way. The areas are
halves and their parts are very different. stripes. This description may have been dry very broad and are not tightly delimited by
The central line is not simply a dividing line. reading but that's what's there. either the stripes or the edges of the canvas,
Like all the areas and lines it can be discrete It's important that Newman's paintings are both of which are similar. The stripes are not
and it can also be part of the lines and areas large, but it's even more important that they dominant, thoroughly discrete, stopped before
to either side. The two narrow stripes are are large scaled. His first painting with a the edge or opposed against an area. New-
symmetrical, but one is black, thin paint on stripe, a small one, is large scaled. The single man's openness and freedom are credible
canvas, and one is white, bare canvas bounded stripe allowed this and the scale allowed the now; the earlier closed and somewhat
by marks on the canvas; the black stripe is prominence and assertion of the stripe and the naturalistic form is not. Ordinary abstract
symmetrical to the same surface it's on. The two areas. This scale is one of the most im- painting and expressionistic painting are
white stripe needs and supports larger areas, portant developments in the twentieth- bound in the rectangle by their composition.
on either side, than the black stripe; the right century art. Pollock seems to have been Their space and colour are recessed by a
half extends furthest from the central stripe; involved in the problem of this scale first. residual naturalism. They are still pictures.
it's cantilevered but still matches the left Newman shared attitudes which were leading If forms run off the edges to imply a con-
half. Both outlying stripes are surprisingly far to the scale and developed it on his own in tinuum, the painting is a segment of that
from the centre and the right one is even 1950. A few others, a little later, recognized continuum, which isn't true of Newman's
further. The narrow black stripe and the its importance. All of the best American art, paintings. They are whole and aren't part of
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