Barnett Newman - Abstract Expressionist (1905 - 1970)

Barnett Newman

American artist born in New York to Jewish, Polish immigrants. He studied philosophy in New York and in his early career he was a teacher, writer and critic. He used his writing skills to help promote his art work writing reviews of exhibitions and letters to the New York Times. His earlier work was surrealist in nature (1940's) but as he moved into the 1950's he stated to develop a more abstract approach with blocks of colour separated by thin vertical lines, Newmann called them his 'zips'. The 'zip' theme remained constant throughout his career and his canvas' grew in size (twenty eight feet by nine feet). He was part of the Abstract expressionist group in the 1950's, working with Rothko, Motherwell,Pollock, Still and Agnes Martin et al.

His later work became more vibrant, tending to use pure colours and he worked in acrylic in contrast to his earlier work in oils. The art critic Clement Greenberg was a great supporter of his work and wrote about him favourably in the journals. Newmann was overlooked as an artist during his life, the more vivacious and colourful Pollock tended to take the limelight, it was not until the end of his life that he began to be taken more seriously. 

Influence on my work:
I discovered Newmann whilst researching my Horizon work, I was looking to strip back my painting to flat colour and the image needed to speak for itself. His 'zip' paintings gave me the idea of how to do this, although I wanted more than one strip of colour as my horizon. His work, with its simplicity made me realise what I was after was possible. I built on his idea and developed my series of work. 

Reference:
http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/barnett-newman-1699
http://www.theartstory.org/artist-newman-barnett.htm
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GacKM9yxiw4
http://www.barnettnewman.org/chronology.php