Onement VI
Barnett Newman
BARNETT NEWMAN, 1953. OIL ON CANVAS.
‘There is a tendency to look at large pictures from a distance,’ Barnett Newman’s show notes begin. ‘The large pictures in this exhibition are intended to be seen from a short distance.’ Known for their large, vibrant fields of colour, parted by a single vertical ‘zip’ running down the centre; Newman’s ‘Onement’ series takes its name from archaic English, meaning ‘at one’. Only close range examination will allow viewers to truly appreciate its building, enveloping washes of ultramarine blue, and in turn the hand that produced them - measuring 8.5 by 10 feet, the extravagant size of Newman’s canvases was intended to provoke this curiosity.