BARNETT NEWMAN

Where did Barnett Newman grow up?

Born 29 January 1905 in New York City to Polish-Jewish immigrants, Newman studied philosophy at the City College of New York, graduating in 1927. He worked in his father’s clothing business and later as a teacher, writer, and critic.

In the 1930s, Newman experimented with figurative and surrealist-inspired forms of expressionist painting, but he found these works unsatisfactory and ultimately destroyed many of them. During this period, he was deeply engaged in philosophical and artistic debates, seeking a new form of expression that could convey a profound spiritual and emotional experience. This pursuit was the foundation for the breakthrough that defined his mature style in the late 1940s.

What are Barnett Newman’s key works?

Newman’s best-known paintings feature expansive fields of colour interrupted by vertical lines that slice through the picture plane. These ‘zips’, for Newman, define a new spatial relationship within his paintings, an essentialist expression of form and space, figure and ground.

Onement I (1948)

Onement I (1948) is the first painting in which Newman introduced the signature zip motif. The now iconic canvas notably features a portrait-oriented dark red field with a painterly cadmium orange line vertically bisecting it. This work established the framework for his subsequent explorations in painting and sculpture.

Vir Heroicus Sublimis (1950–51)

Translating to ‘Man, Heroic and Sublime,’ this painting is over seven metres wide and features an intense red ground punctuated by five vertical zips that meet the top and bottom edges of the canvas. Newman intended for viewers to engage with the work from a close distance, making viewing the painting an immersive experience. Vir Heroicus Sublimis and Onement I are part of the New York Museum of Modern Art‘s permanent collection.

‘The Stations of the Cross’ series (1958–66)

This series of largely monochrome paintings, subtitled ‘Lema sabachthani’ (‘Why have you forsaken me?’), are based on each of Jesus’s fourteen Stations. ‘The Stations of the Cross’ (1958–66) is one of Newman’s most significant and introspective series. These fourteen large black-and-white paintings explore human suffering, faith, and spiritual endurance. Subtitled Lema sabachthani—the Aramaic phrase meaning “Why have you forsaken me?”—the series draws on the Passion of Christ to reflect upon the struggle for redemption and meaning post-World War II. Exhibited at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in 1966, ‘The Stations of the Cross’ is often regarded as the pinnacle of Newman’s artistic achievement.

What Were Barnett Newman’s Major Exhibitions?

Barnett Newman was the subject of both solo and group exhibitions.

Solo exhibitions:

• Betty Parsons Gallery, New York, (23 January–11 February 1950).
• The Stations of the Cross: Lema Sabachthani, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York (23 April–19 June 1966).
• Barnett Newman: The Late Work, The Menil Collection, Houston (27 March–2 August 2015).

Group exhibitions:

• The New American Painting: As Shown in Eight European Countries, 1958-1959, The Museum of Modern Art, New York (28 May-8 September 1959).
• 1963 Annual Exhibition of Contemporary American Painting, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (11 December 1963–2 February 1964).
• Painting on the Move: A Century of Contemporary Painting (1900-2000), Kunstmuseum, Basel (26 May–8 September 2002).

How Have Barnett Newman’s Artworks Performed at Auction?

Barnett Newman’s artworks have achieved remarkable figures in the art market. In 1985, his painting Ulysses (1952) sold for USD 1.6 million at Sotheby’s, marking one of the early high-value sales of his work. This trend continued with Onement VI (1953), which fetched USD 43.8 million at Sotheby’s in 2013. In 2020, another painting from the series, Newman’s Onement V (1952), was sold at Christie’s New York for USD 30.1 million.

Hazel Ellis | Ocula | 2025