What is the explanation of the seemingly insane drive of man to be painter and poet if it is not an act of defiance against mans fall and an assertion that he return to the Garden of Eden? For the artists are the first men.
Barnett NewmanI hope that my painting has the impact of giving someone, as it did me, the feeling of his own totality, of his own separateness, of his own individuality.
Barnett NewmanIt is our function as artists to make the spectator see the world our way not his way.
Barnett NewmanAny art worthy of its name should address 'life', 'man', 'nature', 'death' and 'tragedy'.
Barnett NewmanThe problem of a painting is physical and metaphysical, the same as I think life is physical and metaphysical.
Barnett NewmanMan's first expression, like his first dream, was an aesthetic one. Speech was a poetic outcry rather than a demand for communication. Original man, shouting his consonants, did so in yells of awe and anger at his tragic state, at his own self-awareness and at his own helplessness before the void.
Barnett Newman