Barnett Newman
Biography
Barnett Newman was an American color field painter. He is seen as one of the major figures in abstract expressionism. His paintings are existential in tone and content, explicitly composed with the intention of communicating a sense of locality, presence, and contingency.
Newman worked as a teacher for roughly 10 years before his own professional career as an artist began. In 1943, Newman arranged an exhibition with friends Adolph Gottlieb, Mark Rothko, and Milton Avery in protest against the selection jury for a particular exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Newman’s first solo exhibitions during the early 1950s were generally not well received by critics and art collectors; however, by the late 1950s, major museums began purchasing Newman’s work as he garnered a larger audience and greater appreciation.
In 1936, he married Annalee Greenhouse. Newman died in 1970 of a heart attack in New York City.
Barnett Newman’s works are included in many prestigious public collections around the world, including those in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Tate Gallery in London, and the Kunstmuseum Basel in Switzerland.
Exhibitions
Select Exhibitions
2017
Newman, LOUISIANA MUSEUM OF MODERN ART HUMLEBÆK | DENMARK
2016
Abstract Expressionism, ROYAL ACADEMY OF ARTS MAYFAIR | LONDON | UK
Newman: Drawings and Prints, KUNSTMUSEUM BASEL, HAUPTBAU & NEUBAU BASEL | SWITZERLAND
2014
Barnett Newman, STEDELIJK MUSEUM AMSTERDAM | NETHERLANDS
2013
Piet Mondrian – Newman – Dan Flavin, KUNSTMUSEUM BASEL, HAUPTBAU & NEUBAU BASEL | SWITZERLAND
2011
Malevich and the American Legacy, GAGOSIAN GALLERY, NEW YORK (980 MADISON AVENUE)
2009
1945-1949 Repartir à zéro, comme si la peinture n’avait jamais existé, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon, Lyon
2008
Color as Field. American Painting 1950-1975, Frist Center for the Visual Arts, Nashville, TN
Traces du Sacré, Centre Pompidou, Musée National d´Art Moderne, Paris
Action/Abstraction: Pollock, de Kooning, and American Art, 1940-1976, The Jewish Museum of New York, New York City, NY
Eye on the Collection: Views and Viewpoints, Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, MA
2007
La Abstraction del Paisaje, Fundación Juan March, Madrid
Declaring Space, The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Fort Worth, TX
Mark Rothko & Barnett Newman – The Sublime is Now!, Foundation Beyeler, Riehen
2006
Elemental Form, L&M Arts, New York City, NY
Black Paintings, HDK, Haus der Kunst, München, Munich
2005
Leporello, Een reis door de collectie, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, Amsterdam
Wilder a tribute to the Nicholas Wilder Gallery, Los Angeles 1965-1979, Franklin Parrasch Gallery, New York City, NY
2004
Beyond Geometry: Experiments in Form 1940s-70s, MAM – Miami Art Museum, Miami, FL
Shanghai Art Museum: Encounters with Modernism, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, Amsterdam
2003
Newman: Cantos, Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, Stuttgart (solo)
2002
Newman, Tate Modern, London (England) (solo)
Newman, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA (solo)
1999–2000
Newman: Notes, 1968: The Chinati Foundation, Marfa, TX (solo)
1998
Newman, Galerie Karsten Greve – Cologne, Cologne (solo)
1996
Newman: Prints 1961-1969 – Camden Arts Centre, London (solo)
1993
Azur: Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain, Paris
1991
Newman: 18 cantos – Bündner Kunstmuseum Chur, Chur
1983
Newman Foundation, New York (solo)
1982
Dia Art Foundation, New York (solo)
1981
Kunstmuseum, Basel (solo)
Museum Ludwig, Cologne (solo)
Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris (solo)
1979
Baltimore Museum of Art, Maryland (solo)
1978
The Subject of the Artist, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
1976
America As Art, National Collection of Fine Arts, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
20th Century American Drawing: 3 Avant-Garde Generations, Guggenheim Museum, New York
1972
Tate Gallery, London (travelled to the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, and the Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais, Paris) (solo)
1971
Museum of Modern Art, New York (solo)
1970
Barnett Newman: January 29, 1905-July 4, 1970, Pasadena Art Museum, California (solo)
Das Graphische Werk, Kammerkunsthalle, Berne (solo)
1969
22 Lithographien, Kunstmuseum, Basel (solo)
Prints by 4 New York Painters, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
1968
Dada, Surrealism and Their Heritage, Museum of Modern Art, New York (travelled to Los Angeles and Chicago)
1966
Newman, The Stations of the Cross: Lema Sabachtani, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum New York, NY (solo)
1965
Nicholas Wilder Gallery, Los Angeles (solo)
1962
Barnett Newman and Willem de Kooning, Allan Stone Gallery, New York (solo)
1958–1959
The New American Painting, Museum of Modern Art (International Council) New York, NY
French and Company, New York (solo)
1958
Retrospective, Bennington College Bennington, VT (solo)
1951
Betty Parsons Gallery New York, NY (solo)
1950
Betty Parsons Gallery New York, NY (solo)