Oil Paint
Oil paint is a slow-drying art medium made with pigment and a drying-oil binder that allows extended working time, smooth blending, and layered application.
Painter
Barnett Newman
Barnett Newman was an American abstract painter known for vast, often monochromatic color fields interrupted by narrow vertical stripes he called zips.
Barnett Newman quick facts
Newman's monumental Color Field paintings were an important strand of Abstract Expressionism, distinct from the visibly gestural action painting of Jackson Pollock.
| Born | January 29, 1905 · New York City, New York, U.S. |
|---|---|
| Died | July 4, 1970 · New York City, New York, U.S. |
| Nationality | American |
| Movements | Color Field Painting · Abstract Expressionism |
| Paint types | Oil paint · acrylic paint · Magna synthetic-resin paint (distinct from ordinary waterborne acrylic) |
| Painting surfaces | Canvas (including very large stretched supports) |
| Painting methods | Used vertical zips with varied edges and applications; in Onement I he left a painted strip of masking tape attached to the canvas |
| Common subjects | Nonrepresentational expanses of color and vertical bands, with titles suggesting the sublime, existence, and spiritual or human experience |
| Notable works | Onement I (1948) · Vir Heroicus Sublimis (1950–51) · The Stations of the Cross (1958–66) |
Sources: MoMA: Vir Heroicus Sublimis, MoMA: Onement I and the zip technique, National Gallery of Art: Barnett Newman, National Gallery of Art: Be II, National Gallery of Art: The Stations of the Cross, Smithsonian: Barnett Newman.
Paint types used
MoMA identifies Vir Heroicus Sublimis as oil on canvas. National Gallery of Art records also document acrylic and Magna on other Newman canvases; Magna was a solvent-based synthetic-resin artist paint and should not be conflated with waterborne acrylics.
Acrylic Paint
Acrylic paint is a fast-drying, water-based paint made with pigment and an acrylic polymer binder that forms a durable film on many prepared surfaces.
Surface types used
Newman's large canvases made color and scale physical experiences. His 1950–51 Vir Heroicus Sublimis is more than five meters wide, inviting the viewer to stand close to the painted field.
Canvas
Canvas is a woven fabric support, commonly cotton or linen, used for painting and sold either raw or prepared with a compatible ground layer.
Painters similar to Barnett Newman
Newman shared an interest in immersive abstraction with Mark Rothko, while Helen Frankenthaler developed a different approach through staining color directly into canvas.
Mark Rothko
Mark Rothko was an American abstract painter known for large canvases with softly edged fields of color and a focus on the emotional impact of painting.
Helen Frankenthaler
Helen Frankenthaler was an American painter whose soak-stain technique helped reshape postwar abstraction by allowing thinned paint to soak directly into raw canvas.