Barnett Newman Quotes

• I prefer to leave the paintings to speak for themselves.

  Barnett Newman

  Art, Expression, Leaving

  69 Copy quote

• A painter is a choreographer of space.

  Barnett Newman

  Space, Painter, Choreographers

  27 Copy quote

• Aesthetics is for the artist like ornithology is for the birds.

  Barnett Newman

  Art, Bird, Ornithology

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• I hope that my painting has the impact of giving someone, as it did me, the feeling of his own totality, of his own separateness, of his own individuality.

  Barnett Newman

  Impact, Giving, Feelings

  Barnett Newman, John Philip O'Neill (1992). “Barnett Newman: Selected Writings and Interviews”, p.21, Univ of California Press

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• Sculpture is what you bump into when you back up to see a painting.

  Barnett Newman

  Sculpture, Bumps, Painting

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• It is our function as artists to make the spectator see the world our way not his way.

  Barnett Newman

  Artist, World, Way

  "Manifesto" by Barnett Newman, Mark Rothko and Adolph Gottlieb in New York Times, June 13, 1943.

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• Man's first expression, like his first dream, was an aesthetic one. Speech was a poetic outcry rather than a demand for communication. Original man, shouting his consonants, did so in yells of awe and anger at his tragic state, at his own self-awareness and at his own helplessness before the void.

  Barnett Newman

  Dream, Communication, Men

  Barnett Newman, John Philip O'Neill (1992). “Barnett Newman: Selected Writings and Interviews”, p.158, Univ of California Press

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• Any art worthy of its name should address 'life', 'man', 'nature', 'death' and 'tragedy'.

  Barnett Newman

  Art, Men, Names

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• The impulse of modern art was this desire to destroy beauty.

  Barnett Newman

  Art, Desire, Modern

  "Barnett Newman: Selected Writings and Interviews".

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• When painters feel the need to make a shift toward self-discovery, they turn to black and white for a time.

  Barnett Newman

  Black And White, Discovery, Self

  38 Copy quote

• Painting, like passion, is a living voice, which, when I hear it, I must let it speak, unfettered.

  Barnett Newman

  Passion, Voice, Painting

  Barnett Newman, John Philip O'Neill (1992). “Barnett Newman: Selected Writings and Interviews”, p.179, Univ of California Press

  27 Copy quote

• We are in the process of making the world, to a certain extent, in our own image.

  Barnett Newman

  World, Process, Certain

  Barnett Newman, John Philip O'Neill (1992). “Barnett Newman: Selected Writings and Interviews”, p.241, Univ of California Press

  14 Copy quote

• The problem of a painting is physical and metaphysical, the same as I think life is physical and metaphysical.

  Barnett Newman

  Thinking, Painting, Problem

  Barnett Newman, John Philip O'Neill (1992). “Barnett Newman: Selected Writings and Interviews”, p.259, Univ of California Press

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• What is the explanation of the seemingly insane drive of man to be painter and poet if it is not an act of defiance against mans fall and an assertion that he return to the Garden of Eden? For the artists are the first men.

  Barnett Newman

  Fall, Men, Garden

  Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Barnett Newman, Lawrence Alloway (1966). “Barnett Newman, the stations of the cross, lema sabachthani”

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• I know that it is impossible to talk about my work. And since it's impossible for me or anybody else to talk about my work, I feel I might as well talk about it.

  Barnett Newman

  Might, Impossible, Wells

  Barnett Newman, John Philip O'Neill (1992). “Barnett Newman: Selected Writings and Interviews”, p.281, Univ of California Press

  16 Copy quote

• We have lost contact with man's natural desire for the exalted, for a concern with our relation to absolute emotions.

  Barnett Newman

  Men, Desire, Emotion

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• Aesthetics is to artists as ornithology is to birds.

  Barnett Newman

  Artist, Bird, Ornithology

  14 Copy quote

• Painting, like passion, is a living voice.

  Barnett Newman

  Passion, Voice, Painting

  Barnett Newman, John Philip O'Neill (1992). “Barnett Newman: Selected Writings and Interviews”, p.179, Univ of California Press

  9 Copy quote

• From the very beginning I felt that I would do a series.

  Barnett Newman

  Felt, Series

  Barnett Newman, John Philip O'Neill (1992). “Barnett Newman: Selected Writings and Interviews”, p.189, Univ of California Press

  9 Copy quote

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