Barnett Newman (1905鈥�1970), a founding member of the abstract expressionist movement, was a contemporary of such figures as Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Mark Rothko, and Clyfford Still. He left behind only 118 finished paintings, six sculptures, and 83 acknowledged drawings, yet is often regarded as the greatest painter to have emerged after the Second World War. Barnett Newman is the definitive biography of a charismatic New Yorker who defied the rules and created an art of the sublime.
This landmark book features original research conducted over decades, using scores of interviews, oral histories, and previously unseen correspondence to paint a richly textured portrait of a creative sage who became an exemplar of the artist-citizen. Born in New York to Polish Jewish immigrant parents, he grandly aspired to involve himself in every detail of the city鈥檚 life. He was a crusader for the civil service, ran against La Guardia for mayor, worked as a teacher, wrote poetry, criticism, and manifestos, produced political plays, and promoted other artists鈥攁ll before painting a mature work of his own in his early forties. Newman began with none of the qualities once considered indispensable for a master artist, such as training, apprenticeship, or natural facility. But he possessed a galvanizing intellect and a conviction that aesthetic expression is an ecstatic declaration of existence and an assertion of human dignity.
Drawing on previously unpublished sources gleaned from full access to Newman鈥檚 archives, Amy Newman presents a portrait of a maverick whose works are among the most enduring of the twentieth century and whose influence continues to this day.
"A comprehensive biography of abstract expressionist Barnett Newman (1905-1970): educator, poet, political activist, New York mayoral candidate...and, for the last 25 years of his life, a groundbreaking artist.... [Amy] Newman reveals the genesis, details, and reception of [his] paintings and sculptures... grounding the work not only in [his] life, but in the energetic postwar art world. An impressive, nuanced study."鈥�Kirkus, starred review
"[Barnett Newman: Here] skillfully charts the artist’s improbable path to success. Especially welcome are [Amy Newman's] efforts to distinguish the true chronology of Newman’s career from his retrospective tendencies toward self-mythologizing. Thoroughly explored too are the ways the painter’s Judaism informed his self-understanding as an artist and influenced his choices of titles and themes.... essential reading for those interested in understanding both the man and his work."鈥�Library Journal
"Art historian Newman (no relation) had unique access to the artist’s extensive archive and devoted more than 15 years to creating the first comprehensive biography of this intriguingly volatile and charismatic artist. With perpetual detail and intricate insights, she deftly covers Barney’s family history, deep feelings about being Jewish, voracious reading, arts education, and reliance for many years on his smart and heroically hard-working wife, Annalee, to support them....[this] vibrant magnum opus gloriously reveals Barnett Newman in full."鈥�Booklist,聽starred review
“Barnett Newman’s life story went untold for more than a half century after his death. Here it is now, animated and enriched by prodigious amounts of primary research, an engrossing, richly contextualized journey across seven decades of Newman’s life and art.”—Ann Temkin, Marie-Jos茅e and Henry Kravis Chief Curator of Painting and Sculpture at The Museum of Modern Art, New York
“Barnett Newman told tales, poked authorities, shifted shapes, pronounced truths—and became, to the surprise of many, the oracle of modern American art. How he divined his legendary ‘zip’ is the great story of Amy Newman’s biography, but the artist’s avuncular charm—he was always a Barney not just a Barnett—adds earthy seasoning to his spirited quest.”—Mark Stevens, coauthor of Francis Bacon: Revelations and de Kooning: An American Master
“No one will deny the supreme importance of Barnett Newman’s contribution to American modernism. This biography of the great visual artist and intellectual is sensitively observed, thoroughly researched, and beautifully evocative.”—Richard Shiff, coauthor of Barnett Newman: A Catalogue Raisonn茅
“With the sweep and rich detailing of an epic, this biography does justice to its monumental subject. Barnett Newman was a powerful painter. He was also thin-skinned, disputatious, a moralist, a born entertainer, and a lovable mensch, and Amy Newman, in a spirited account, gives us the whole bursting package.”—Sanford Schwartz, author of Artist Stories
“Amy Newman delivers an authoritative and compelling account of Barnett Newman as an artist, critic, citizen, and person. Comprehensive in coverage, insightful in analysis, and sensitive in interpretation, the result is a riveting biographical portrait of one of the most significant artists of the twentieth century.”—Michael Schreyach, author of Pollock’s Modernism
