black
grey
blue
red
brown
white

We have lost contact with man’s natural desire for the exalted, for a concern with our relation to absolute emotions.

Barnett Newman

Sculpture is what you bump into when you back up to see a painting.
BARNETT NEWMAN

Bumps Painting Sculpture
The impulse of modern art was this desire to destroy beauty.
BARNETT NEWMAN

Art Desire Modern
From the very beginning I felt that I would do a series.
BARNETT NEWMAN

Begining Felt Series
It is our function as artists to make the spectator see the world our way not his way.
BARNETT NEWMAN

Artist Way World
We are in the process of making the world, to a certain extent, in our own image.
BARNETT NEWMAN

Certain Process World
We have lost contact with man’s natural desire for the exalted, for a concern with our relation to absolute emotions.
BARNETT NEWMAN

Desire Emotion Men
I hope that my painting has the impact of giving someone, as it did me, the feeling of his own totality, of his own separateness, of his own individuality.
BARNETT NEWMAN

Feelings Giving Impact
Any art worthy of its name should address ‘life’, ‘man’, ‘nature’, ‘death’ and ‘tragedy’.
BARNETT NEWMAN

Art Men Names
Painting, like passion, is a living voice.
BARNETT NEWMAN

Painting Passion Voice
I know that it is impossible to talk about my work. And since it’s impossible for me or anybody else to talk about my work, I feel I might as well talk about it.
BARNETT NEWMAN

Impossible might Wells
Aesthetics is for the artist like ornithology is for the birds.
BARNETT NEWMAN

Art Bird Ornithology
I prefer to leave the paintings to speak for themselves.
BARNETT NEWMAN

Art Expression Leaving
The problem of a painting is physical and metaphysical, the same as I think life is physical and metaphysical.
BARNETT NEWMAN

Painting Problem Thinking
When painters feel the need to make a shift toward self-discovery, they turn to black and white for a time.
BARNETT NEWMAN

Black Discovery Self White
What is the explanation of the seemingly insane drive of man to be painter and poet if it is not an act of defiance against mans fall and an assertion that he return to the Garden of Eden? For the artists are the first men.
BARNETT NEWMAN

Fall Garden Men
A painter is a choreographer of space.
BARNETT NEWMAN

Choreographer Painter Space
Aesthetics is to artists as ornithology is to birds.
BARNETT NEWMAN

Artist Bird Ornithology
Painting, like passion, is a living voice, which, when I hear it, I must let it speak, unfettered.
BARNETT NEWMAN

Painting Passion Voice

We have lost contact with man’s natural desire for the exalted, for a concern with our relation to absolute emotions.

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We have lost contact with man’s natural desire for the exalted, for a concern with our relation to absolute emotions.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

More Barnett Newman Quotes