Painted canvas fragment  c. 20th century

Curator: Here we have Barnett Newman's "Painted canvas fragment" housed here at the Harvard Art Museums. Editor: Well, my first thought? Raw. It feels like a little flag flown on some forgotten planet. Curator: Indeed. The chromatic intensity of the red against the unprimed canvas, coupled with the fragment's irregular edges, evokes a sense of the incomplete. Editor: Right, it's not trying to be anything other than what it is. Did Newman intend this as a study, a dropout, or a… manifesto? Curator: The lack of explicit dating complicates matters, but viewing this through the lens of Newman's broader pursuit of the sublime, the fragment pulses with potentiality. Editor: I'm still stuck on that red. It's both visceral and kind of heartbreaking. What a life. Curator: A fitting end to our viewing. It really prompts you to consider the weight of the unsaid, doesn't it? Editor: It absolutely does. A potent little thing.