Onement V 1952

Barnett Newman created this oil painting, called Onement V, sometime in the 20th century. It is a dark blue canvas divided by a lighter blue vertical line. Newman was an American artist associated with abstract expressionism, a movement that emerged in the US after World War II. What was the public role of art in the wake of such conflict? Abstract Expressionists turned away from traditional forms of representation to focus on conveying intense emotion through abstract forms. The formal simplicity of Onement V, its stark division of the canvas, might be understood as a response to the fractured social landscape of postwar America. Was this division a lament? An appeal? To grasp the full meaning of such an image, we need to look at the social conditions of artistic production. Primary sources, like the artist's own writings, along with critical responses to Newman's work at the time it was made, help us to better understand its cultural significance. Art is always contingent on social and institutional context.