Barnett Newman

Estate of the Artist
Collection of Annalee Newman, New York
Anthony d'Offay Gallery, London
Acquired by the present owner from the above

New York, Museum of Modern Art, Barnett Newman, October 1971 - January 1972, cat. no. 88, p. 45, illustrated
Amsterdam, Stedelijk Museum, Barnett Newman, March - May 1972, cat. no. 58, illustrated
London, Tate Gallery; Paris, Grand Palais, Galeries Nationales, Barnett Newman, June - December 1972, cat. no. 57
The Baltimore Museum of Art; Amsterdam, Stedelijk Museum; Paris, Musée National d'Art Moderne, Centres Georges Pompidou, Barnett Newman: The Complete Drawings, 1944 - 1969, April 1979 - October 1980, cat. no. 2, pp. 36-37, illustrated in color
Cologne, Museum Ludwig; Kunstmuseum Basel, Barnett Newman: Das zeichnerische Werk, February - July 1981, cat. no. 12
Newport Beach, Newport Harbor Art Museum; New York, Whitney Museum of American Art; Minneapolis, Walker Art Center, The Interpretive Link, Abstract Surrealism into Abstract Expressionism: Works on Paper 1938 - 1948, July 1986 - April 1987, cat. no. 88, p. 136, illustrated in color
Düsseldorf, Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Barnett Newman: Bilder, Skulpturen, Graphik, May - August 1997, cat. no. 19, p. 63
Philadelphia Museum of Art; London, Tate Modern, Barnett Newman, March 2002 - January 2003, cat. no. 1, pp. 114-115, illustrated in color
New York, Craig F. Starr Gallery, Barnett Newman Drawings 1944-1946, April - May 2008, cat. no. 2, illustrated in color

Harold Rosenberg, ed., Barnett Newman, New York, 1978, cat. no. 139, illustrated in color
Mollie McNickle, "The Mind and Art of Barnett Newman," Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Pennsylvania, 1996, pp. 158, 167-168
Konrad Schmidt, "Newman: Wahnsinns-Farben!" Ruhr-Nachrichten, May 29, 1997, p. 7
Angelika Storm-Rusche, "Stahl wie Samt - Leinwand wie Seide: Der Amerikaner Barnett Newman in der Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen Düsseldorf," Berliner Zeitung, May 23, 1997, p. 19
Armin Zweite, Barnett Newman: Paintings, Sculptures, Works on Paper, New York, 1999, cat. no. 6, p. 64, illustrated in color
Richard Shiff, Carol C. Mancuso-Ungaro and Heidi Colsman-Freyberger, eds., Barnett Newman: A Catalogue Raisonné, New York and New Haven, 2004, cat. no. 120, p. 367, illustrated in color

This work is in very good condition overall. The edges are deckled, there are artist’s pinholes at the top two corners, and there is a slight undulation to the sheet, which is inherent to the artist's working method. The sheet is lightly creased at the upper right corner and there is a rippling effect to the side edges. There are some scattered charcoal and pastel marks, some of which appear inherent and some which may be the result of light abrasions to the surface. The sheet is hinged verso to the matte intermittently along the edges. Framed under Plexiglas. *Please note the auction begins at 9:30 am on November 14th.*
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Barnett Newman, along with his contemporaries and close collaborators such as Jackson Pollock, Tony Smith, and Adolph Gottlieb to name a few, would become and remain the seminal American artists of the post-war years. Their influence on the cultural and paradigmatic shift regarding the nexus of the art world from Paris to New York, the Old World to New, continues to reverberate today. In addition to his contemporaries, Newman would have far-reaching influence over the practice of the next generation of artists, not the least of which were Donald Judd and Dan Flavin, for whose first retrospective Newman would give the opening address. 

The drawings of 1944-1945, of which this is a superior example, are some of the earliest works of Newman’s on record as he destroyed all of his canvases and much of his other work prior to this time. Being an incredibly active member of the New York arts and intellectual scene, Newman had at this point already penned a manifesto, “On the Need for Political Action by Men of Culture” and submitted himself as a write-in candidate for mayor. He was concurrently teaching art and working with Betty Parsons to co-curate a number of shows at the Wakefield Gallery where she worked prior to establishing her own eponymous gallery in 1946. One of these, Pre-Columbian Stone Sculpture, would not only receive numerous favorable mentions in its own right but also contributed significantly to Newman’s practice at the time. 

On the heels of World War II there was an intense investigation, especially for second generation Jewish artists like Newman, of what it meant to be American and how their art might reflect a more American culture – especially as it related to their recent immigration and the devastation and destruction of Europe.  Newman and his contemporaries looked further back than the “buckeye” painting of the eighteenth and nineteenth century American mode in order to discover a more weighty parentage for their new practice. They found it in the Pre-Columbian work, which he would display in Pre-Columbian Stone Sculpture.  The immediacy of the visual language employed by these ancient artists resonated with Newman and his milieu as it pertained to their new abstract art. For Newman, these early practitioners employed an abstract style but were not “abstract artists” as their work was not merely decorative but rich with content.  This seemingly pedantic delineation would prove to be exceedingly important as he and his cohort strove to make a similar case for their own work. 

This fascinating example of one of his early drawings, Untitled, of 1944-45, wonderfully presents many of the early investigations Newman was exploring in his work at the time. Deftly rendered in crayon, his technical virtuosity already patently apparent, two abstracted natural, and yet lyrical, forms seem to vibrate within the plane of the picture.  At once seemingly Surrealist and “primitively” natural, the two forms, the rose tinted sandy ground, and the orange horizon all function to create a new abstract visual language.  As his work progressed, and his medium and scale altered, the effect of the pulsating ground of color interrupted by a band or two of color would come to the fore of his practice.  Already in this early example it is apparent that Newman is fast on his way to developing a new visual language which would forever alter the course of American art in the 20^th century.