02 January 2009

Misunderstanding Barnett Newman

When the Tate had a show of Barnett Newman's work a few years ago (2002), I went away shaking my head. Big canvases, fields of solid colours, vertical lines... it didn't seem quite "enough", somehow.

But something must have been taking root in the subconscious. At home, happening on a few short bits of narrow ribbon and some silk samples, I came up with these:
I enjoyed combining the colours and adding variety with quilting, but of course they're a million miles away from Newman's "biomorphical abstractions" - the "zips" of coloured lines that emphasised the flatness of the surface; colour field painting.

'Newman termed the blank canvas on which he worked "the void." In a sense, that void is Newman's achievement. It appears to derive from a considered decision to redefine painting as an act sufficient unto itself without reference to tradition, history, or nature.'

Newman said: "There is no such thing as a good painting about nothing." He was aiming at the "pure idea" of an art expressing the "mystery of sublime" rather than the "beautiful".

3 comments:

Gwen said...

Ahh...your post couldn't have come at a better time. I'm working on a series of studies in vertical and horizontal lines. Thanks for the info.

Linda B. said...

The simplicity of these little pieces reaaly works. For me, less is always more!

Helen said...

I much prefer your silk pieces Margaret. From here it seems there is so much more to them - which I like better. Voids are all very well but you need something to contrast that to make it interesting (in my opinion!). Your texture does that wonderfully.