The Name II 1950

Barnett Newman made this big, off-white painting, maybe with oils or acrylics, but you can barely tell. I imagine him, brush in hand, building up these subtle vertical bands, these 'zips,' as he called them. He must have been thinking about how little it takes to make a huge statement. It’s almost a dare, right? Like, how minimal can I go before it's... everything? The paint's so thin, it's almost like a stain. Those stripes, the zips, they don’t shout, they whisper. But they do divide the space, like a quiet hum. He knew Rothko and all those guys, but Newman was doing his own thing, pushing it, making emptiness a thing. It's like he was trying to paint the unpaintable. Artists, they're always talking to each other, across time, even. It’s an ongoing conversation, a dare, an inspiration.