The Voice 1950

Barnett Newman made 'The Voice' using oil on canvas, and what a quiet voice it is. The colour is subtle, the mark making minimal. I imagine him, brush in hand, layering thin washes of white and cream, building up a surface that vibrates with light. The vertical stripe, or 'zip' as Newman called them, hums with barely-there energy, splitting the canvas, activating the surface. It’s not just a line; it’s a division, a presence, like a doorway to somewhere else. I wonder what he was thinking, as he made these, almost silent gestures? Newman, like the Abstract Expressionists, was trying to get at something primal, something beyond language. He saw painting as a way to encounter the sublime, to evoke a sense of awe and wonder. In this painting, the voice is soft, barely a whisper, but it’s there if you listen.