Who's Afraid of Red, Yellow, and Blue III 1970

Barnett Newman made this painting using big blocks of red, yellow and blue. Imagine him standing there, wrestling with these colors. It's like he's asking, "Can we handle the heat of pure red, the brightness of yellow, the depth of blue, all at once?" It makes me think about how we use color to express ourselves, to feel something. Look how thin he spread the paint. The texture is almost absent, which is kind of amazing when you think about how physical painting usually is. It’s almost like the paint is just there to carry the color. That blue stripe, for example, it’s not just blue, it’s a whole mood. When I look at the canvas I imagine that Barnett has put a lot of himself into it, as well as the legacy of other painters who have handled red, yellow and blue. Painting is just this ongoing conversation across time, isn't it? It's full of ambiguity. It gives us a way to talk about feelings without having to say exactly what they are.