Vir heroicus sublimis 1951

Barnett Newman made this huge painting, "Vir Heroicus Sublimis," with oil on canvas sometime in the mid-20th century. Look at all that red. Not just one red, but a whole field of it, kind of brushed in. You can tell that Newman was really thinking about the surface, about how the paint sits there and how the color breathes. The texture isn’t super obvious, but it's there. The color feels really important, right? I can feel the subtle differences and where he might have gone over it a few times. Then, bam! Those stripes, he called them "zips", cut through the red. Look how the zips aren't perfect, they wobble a little. It's like he wanted to show you that a painting is a thing, not just a picture. Newman’s work reminds me a little bit of Rothko, but with more of an edge. Both were into color, but Newman brought this rawness and this idea of the zip that’s all his own. It's art that’s not trying to give you all the answers. It's more about asking questions, which is something I can definitely get behind.