Canto II 1963

Barnett Newman's "Canto II" – what is it? A black square with a vertical blue line. It’s a painting, or a print – but let’s think of it as a painting for now. We can imagine Newman working on this, the controlled hand, the kind of meditative thought that goes into this sort of reductive composition. The black, you know, it’s not just black. It has texture, depth, a kind of velvety quality, especially up against that matte blue. The blue line isn't perfect, which is what gives it its power. It feels so considered, so deliberate. Look at how it sits within the black. It’s an assertion, a declaration of something. The line becomes a form, a presence, an event. Newman’s earlier work was all about these kinds of elemental forms. He seemed to be in conversation with Mondrian, but pushing it even further. With Newman, it’s less about the grid and more about this solitary, vertical gesture. Like poetry, it values ambiguity and different interpretations.