Barnett Newman [Anglais] [Relié]

Time has served to make the laconic visual language of Barnett Newman (1905-70) ever more enigmatic. While the size of his paintings grants them powerful presence, and they fairly throb with voluble potential, Newman's specific messages remain decidedly unspoken. Temkin, curator at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and Richard Shiff (C‚zanne and the End of Impressionism) do much to give these works a distinct historical voice. They also illuminate Newman himself, the man who, though a forceful figure in the art world, was often eclipsed by his contemporaries Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, and Clyfford Still. Intended to accompany the first retrospective exhibition of Newman's work since the 1970s (at the Philadelphia Museum of Modern Art until this July), the catalog provides a rich reconstruction of Newman's life, placing special focus on his early curatorial synergy with Betty Parsons, his related efforts to promote the artists we now recognize as the New York School, and the strong principles that informed the appearance of his paintings and sculptures. A detailed, picture-rich chronology follows the catalog. Recommended for all art collections. Savannah Schroll, Smithsonian Institution Libs., Washington, DC
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Newman (1905-70), the son of Jewish Polish immigrants, worked slowly and contemplatively, unlike his frenzied friend, Jackson Pollock. He made a modest number of paintings and had few major exhibitions, yet by virtue of his "shockingly minimal" paintings and eloquently radical theories about art (he was as loquacious as his paintings were quiet), was a phenomenally influential creative force. Curator Temkin, whose last book resurrected the painter Alice Neel, oversaw the first-ever posthumous retrospective of Newman's work, at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and put together this marvelously evocative catalog in which stunning reproductions are matched with biographical and critical essays and other valuable documentation. Temkin and her contributors illuminate the thought and emotion that went into Newman's deceptively simple paintings, large fields of deep, textured color dramatically divided by vertical lines, or "zips." Newman's restrained yet vibrant paintings are just the sort of modern art people love to mock--in fact, he drolly collected cartoons poking fun at abstract painting--but his work, essential and transcendent, embodies a genuine quest for liberty and spiritual insight. Donna Seaman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

An exquisite catalogue raisonné. . . . [A] lovely object in and of itself, and well worth the price.

Barnett Newman (1905-1970) was one of the most profound and influential artists of the twentieth century. A master of expansive spatial effects and evocative color, he pioneered painting that was both abstract and emotive, suffused with powerful philosophical and spiritual meaning. This landmark book surveys the breadth of Newman's career from his founding role in the New York School in the 1940s to his key influence on both minimalism and conceptual art in the 1960s. Featuring more than 100 of his paintings, drawings, prints, and sculptures, the book also offers significant new scholarly findings based on the archives of the Barnett Newman Foundation. Despite the apparent simplicity of his signature, the "zip," Newman's art is richly complicated and unexpectedly diverse. His works include such masterpieces as Onement 1 (1948), the series Stations of the Cross (1958-66), and the monumental sculpture Broken Obelisk (1967). Each work of art in this book is reproduced in full color and accompanied by its own entry. A comprehensive chronology of the artist's life based on new documentation, a selected bibliography, and a selected exhibition history complete the volume.

This book accompanies the first retrospective exhibition of Barnett Newman's work in three decades. The show will be on view at the Philadelphia Museum of Art from March 24 to July 7, 2002, and will appear at the Tate Modern in London from September 19, 2002 to January 5, 2003. Published in association with the Philadelphia Museum of Art

Ann Temkin is The Muriel and Philip Berman Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.