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Barnett Newman
Barnett Newman's Model of a Synagogue
Barnett Newman (1905-1970) played a critical role in the development of Abstract Expressionism and is associated with contemporaries Adolph Gottlieb, Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, and Clyfford Still. At the end of World War II and the Holocaust, Newman focused on the theme of creation: a metaphor both for his artistic efforts, and for the renewal of a world torn apart by evil and destruction. Newman turned to various mythological and religious traditions for inspiration.
Newman’s painting Onement I (1948) is considered an artistic breakthrough for achieving a unity of line, color, and canvas. The title may refer to Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement in which worshippers not only seek forgiveness but also 'at-one-ment' with God. Onement I features a 'zip,' a vertical band that occurs as a leitmotif in Newman’s oeuvre. Thomas Hess, the art historian and curator of the 1971 Newman retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art, argued that the 'zip' represents zimzum, the divine contraction that produced the first ray of light and Adam. Hess’ analysis of the 'zip' was based on Gershom Scholem’s discussions of Lurianic Kabbalah in Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism (1965), a book that Hess discovered in the late artist’s library. However, according to the artist’s wife Annalee Newman, Hess may have overstated the influence of Kabbalah on Newman’s work. Ms. Newman claims her husband borrowed titles from Jewish mysticism because the language was "poetic and fanciful.” She rejects Hess’ argument that the sole source of inspiration for the 'zip' paintings was Kabbalah.
However, Kabbalah directly influenced two works in the 1960s. Newman based his steel sculpture Zim Zum I (1969) on the windows of his synagogue model, first presented at The Jewish Museum in the 1963 exhibition Recent American Synagogue Architecture. The design is an eclectic fusion of modern architecture, Jewish mysticism, and baseball - arguably the most popular form of secular 'religion' in American culture. The congregation is seated in dugouts. Newman replaces the traditional bimah (pulpit) with a pitcher’s mound in the center of the sanctuary. In his statement, Newman refers to makom (“the dwelling place” - a mystical term for God) and zimzum: “The synagogue is more than just a House of Prayer. It is a place, Makom, where each man can be called up to stand before the Torah to read his portion…Here in this synagogue, each man sits, private and secluded in the dugouts, waiting to be called, not to ascend a stage, but to go up on the mound where, under the tension of that 'Tzim-Tzum' that created light and the world, he can experience a total sense of his own personality before the Torah and His Name.”
Readings
Baigell, Matthew. “Barnett Newman’s Stripe Paintings and Kabbalah: A Jewish Take.” American Art (Spring 1994): 33-43.
Hess, Thomas B. Barnett Newman. New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1971.
Newman, Annalee. “Barnett Newman and the Kabbalah.” American Art (Spring 1995): 117-118.
Recent American Synagogue Architecture, The Jewish Museum, 1963.
Temkin, Ann, ed. Barnett Newman. Philadelphia: Philadelphia Museum of Art, 2002.
Links
http://www.philamuseum.org/exhibitions/exhibits/newman/index.html
http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/exhibitions/newman/default.htm
Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item:
http://hdl.handle.net/1964/457
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