CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 10/4/2016

Barnett Newman: Drawings and Prints

"Untitled" (1946) is reproduced from Barnett Newman: Drawings and Prints, a beautifully produced new release from Kerber. "As if there were a centrifugal force emanating from the empty abyss, the black-rimmed circle is surrounded by short, expressive brushstrokes," Anita Hildemann writes. "Brenda Richardson had already pointed out in 1979 that on this sheet, the circular void functions like the 'zip' in the painting Onement I of 1948. Namely, the 'zip' separates the color fields on both sides from one another but at the same time binds them together. On the paper, the ink simultaneously disperses in every direction and is yet held together in a circle: expansion and retraction are in balance."