| Artist: | Newman, Barnett |
|
|---|---|---|
| Title: | Vir Heroicus Sublimis | |
| Date: | 1950-1951 | |
| Nationality: | American | |
| Context: | Post WWII, NY School | |
| Movement: | Color Field | |
| Materials: | oil paint on canvas | |
| Subject: the title indicates oneness, a wholistic vision; the heroic, monumental scale indicates the "Sublime" (the boundless, the infinite) Style: monochromatic color field with a "zip" of contrasting color or value tone cutting across; the opening up; foreshadows Bleckner's stripe"zip" line is less a stripe than a color space paintings; not just a grid on the surface (like a Mondrian); the "zip" suggests a space beyond the surface; not about mark-making; more about color, light, andindividual gesture or space. Context: post-war existentialism (alienation in the void); more than mere formalism; reductive abstraction as heroic search for essence and the "Sublime." | ||
