Who was Barnett Newman?
Q: Who was Barnett Newman?
A: Barnett Newman was an American artist who is one of the major figures in abstract expressionism and a leading "color field" painter.
Q: Where was he born?
A: He was born in New York City, the son of Jewish immigrants from Poland.
Q: What did he study?
A: He studied philosophy at the City College of New York.
Q: How did he make a living?
A: He worked in his father's business making clothing, taught, wrote and critiqued art.
Q: What style did he develop later on in his career?
A: He developed a mature style with areas of pure color separated by thin vertical lines or "zips".
Q: When did Newman reach his fully mature style?
A: Newman thought that he reached his fully mature style with the Onement series (from 1948).
Q: How was Newman received during his lifetime as an artist?
A: During much of his life, Newman was unappreciated as an artist and overlooked in favour of more colorful characters such as Jackson Pollock. It wasn't until the end of his life that he began to be taken seriously, but he had an important influence on many younger artists.
