Covenant 1949

Curator: Here we have Barnett Newman's "Covenant," an oil on canvas completed in 1949, a striking example of Abstract Expressionism currently housed at the Hirshhorn. Editor: Well, it certainly commands attention with that deep, almost blood-red ground. Those two stark vertical lines give it a severity, a kind of visual pronouncement. Curator: Yes, the color choice is certainly potent. It's interesting to note how Newman titled this piece "Covenant," which, of course, suggests a binding agreement or promise. Editor: Exactly. And look at the 'zip' as he called them, those vertical lines. The black one feels like law, stark and unyielding. The golden one though, that shimmers with hope or redemption maybe? Curator: The 'zip' became a signature element of Newman's work. These lines serve as structuring devices, breaking the canvas into zones and inviting the viewer into an immediate and personal encounter. In this context, "Covenant" acquires a weight, reflective of the anxieties around the end of World War II, but the glimmer of that covenant with God is always present. Editor: Right, that context is important. Visually the scale is overwhelming; there's an almost architectural quality here. Does that sense of monumentality suggest something beyond personal struggle – collective memory, perhaps? Curator: Precisely. The large scale emphasizes the direct experience, intending for the viewer to feel enveloped and even dwarfed by it. Editor: So, thinking about imagery and memory, is he inviting a new kind of visual covenant between artwork and viewer? A new, post-war symbolism, using pure form and color. It dispenses the previous figurative norms for accessing deep historical ideas. Curator: That's insightful. I think he's inviting an opportunity to really face existential realities, by rejecting historical motifs. Newman saw the act of painting as an ethical one, one in which abstract art becomes capable of expressing humanity's search for meaning. Editor: It’s an agreement indeed, an agreement that we can, in the face of this bold redness and unwavering lines, still find a connection, still search for promise. Curator: Yes, even when that promise seems obscured, a golden 'zip' of possibility persists.