Painted canvas fragment  c. 20th century

Curator: Here we have Barnett Newman’s “Painted canvas fragment” held at the Harvard Art Museums. I find it oddly compelling, like a secret whispered in colour. Editor: It's visceral, isn't it? That slash of white through the red feels almost violent, like a wound or a sudden revelation. Curator: Exactly! Newman sought the sublime through simplicity. Red, of course, has a long history—passion, sacrifice, anger, life itself—and then that stripe. Editor: The "zip," as he called it. Breaking the colour field, an interruption, a moment of clarity. It reminds me of religious art actually, maybe a stark, modern interpretation. Curator: Perhaps the zip is a symbol of the division of Heaven and Earth, or a representation of the human soul searching for meaning? Newman wanted to evoke feelings, not represent the visible world. Editor: And it really does evoke something primal. It's a small fragment, yet it contains so much raw emotion. Curator: It's fascinating how something so simple can be so emotionally charged, isn’t it? Editor: Absolutely. This fragment makes you wonder about the rest of the canvas and the grand scale of Newman’s other works. It is a symbol itself.