Artist Quotes by Barnett Newman

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

— Barnett Newman

The impulse of modern art is the desire to destroy beauty.

— Barnett Newman

Aesthetics is to artists as ornithology is to birds.

— Barnett Newman

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

— Barnett Newman

I prefer to leave the paintings to speak for themselves.

— Barnett Newman

Painting, like passion, is a living voice.

— Barnett Newman

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

— Barnett Newman

A painter is a choreographer of space.

— Barnett Newman

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

— Barnett Newman

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

— Barnett Newman

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

— Barnett Newman

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

— Barnett Newman

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

— Barnett Newman

What is the explanation of the seemingly insane drive of man to be painter and poet if it is not an act…

— Barnett Newman

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

— Barnett Newman