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6 unusual facts about Barnett Newman


Barnett Newman

Consigned by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen and previously part of Frederick R. Weisman's collection, Newman’s 8.5-by-10-foot Onement VI (1953) was sold for a record $43.8 million at Sotheby's New York in 2013; its sale was ensured by an undisclosed third-party guarantee.

Newman was unappreciated as an artist for much of his life, being overlooked in favour of more colorful characters such as Jackson Pollock.

Bob Law

He was influenced in this direction by his discovery of the abstract paintings of Barnett Newman and Mark Rothko that he saw in 1959 at the Tate Gallery.

Georg Baselitz

Conversely, he argues that Baselitz found the work of Barnett Newman inaccessible, as well as that of Mark Rothko.

Martin Stanton

the karaoke effect – a transcendent sublime systemic effect – where the set narrative links between thoughts and feelings suddenly disengage along zip lines (immortalized by Barnett Newman), and transpose into an independent and often contradictory narrative.

Ralph Hotere

In some works, strips of colour are placed against stark black backgrounds in a style reminiscent of Barnett Newman.


Frederick Spratt

Spratt was informed by the formalist art of Josef Albers, minimalist painting by Ellsworth Kelly and Ad Reinhardt, and abstract expressionist painting by Barnett Newman; his work was also deeply influenced by his early days as a sign painter.

Michael Somoroff

Somoroff has been the first artist invited to exhibit at the Rothko Chapel in Houston, Texas, and the only artist since Barnett Newman to have an installation on the grounds.

Terry Winters

His paintings from the 1980s have their antecedents in the work of Arshile Gorky and the early biomorphic pictures of Mark Rothko and Barnett Newman.


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