Barnett Newman

Barnett Newman (1905-1970) was an American painter who became one of the leading figures of Abstract Expressionism and a forerunner of Minimalism and Color Field painting. Born in New York to Polish-Jewish immigrants, he studied at the Art Students League and City College.

Newman's signature element is the "zip": a vertical stripe dividing fields of color. His Vir Heroicus Sublimis (1950-51) at MoMA is nearly 18 feet wide, a vast red canvas interrupted by thin vertical bands. He also created important sculptures, including the Broken Obelisk (1963-69), dedicated to Martin Luther King Jr.