Barnett Newman

From the very beginning I felt that I would do a series,

— Barnett Newman

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

— Barnett Newman

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

— Barnett Newman

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

— Barnett Newman

Painting, like passion, is a living voice.

— 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

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

— 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

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

— Barnett Newman

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

— Barnett Newman

I prefer to leave the paintings to speak for themselves.

— Barnett Newman

“Anonymity is the truest heroism .”

— Barnett Newman

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

— 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

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

— Barnett Newman

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

— Barnett Newman

I know that it is impossible to talk about my work. And since it's impossible for me or anybody else to talk…

— 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

A painter is a choreographer of space.

— Barnett Newman

Man's first expression, like his first dream, was an aesthetic one. Speech was a poetic outcry rather than a demand for communication.…

— Barnett Newman