Barnett Newman Quotes

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

Painting, like passion, is a living voice.

Any art worthy of its name should address ‘life’, ‘man’, ‘nature’, ‘death’ and ‘tragedy’.

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.

Painting, like passion, is a living voice, which, when I hear it, I must let it speak, unfettered.

Aesthetics is for the artist like ornithology is for the birds.

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.

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