The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 18, 2025

Black ink brushed on textured wove paper with two distinct sides. The left is bisected vertically by a thick black line. On the right strokes of black splay out from a defined line, preserving the cream paper. Swaths of black ink border the line, thinning to strokes of greyed remnants at the edges.

Untitled

1959

Barnett Newman

(American, 1905–1970)
America
brush and black ink on cream wove paper
Sheet: 53.5 x 61.1 cm (21 1/16 x 24 1/16 in.)
Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund 1986.4
© Barnett Newman Foundation / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Catalogue raisonné: Shiff 178
Location: Not on view

Did You Know?

Newman made this drawing just after a decade-long period during which he had not worked at all on paper.

Description

A pioneer of abstract painting, Barnett Newman developed his own severe, minimal style around 1945 and spent the rest of his career working within a strict vocabulary of form. He focused on the "zip," the long vertical element extending from top to bottom on his canvases. This important drawing is related to a series of fourteen paintings that he named The Stations of the Cross (National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC), perhaps his greatest achievement. In many ways the paintings are like large drawings, and this work has much in common with them, using the same vocabulary of positive black and negative white forms to declare space.
  • 1959–1961
    Barnett Newman [1905–1970], New York, NY, sold to Cleve and Francine du Plessix Gray
    1961–probably 1985
    Cleve [1918–2004] and Francine du Plessix [1930–2019] Gray, Warren, CT
    by 1985–1986
    (Xavier Fourcade, New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
    1986–
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Du Plessix, Francine. "Painters and Poets." Art in America (October - November 1965). Reproduced: p. 33
    200 Years of Watercolor Painting in America: An Exhibition Commemorating the Centennial of the American Watercolor Society. Exh. Cat. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1966. Mentioned: p. 33, no. 228
    Richardson, Brenda. Barnett Newman: The Complete Drawings, 1944-1969. Exh. Cat. Baltimore: Baltimore Museum of Art, 1979. Mentioned: p. 156, no. 60; Reproduced: p. 157
    Turner, Evan H. "The Year in Review for 1986." Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 74, no. 2 (February 1987): 38-79. Mentioned: p. 47, 72; Reproduced: p. 47
    DeGrazia, Diane, and Carter E. Foster. Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2000. Mentioned: p. 9, pp. 274-275, p. 298; Reproduced: p. 275
    Shiff, Richard, Carol C. Mancusi-Ungaro, and Heidi Colsman-Freyberger. Barnett Newman: A Catalogue Raisonné. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2004. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 425, no. 178
  • Less is More: Minimal Prints. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 16-October 20, 2013).
    Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 27-October 17, 2000); The Morgan Library & Museum, New York, NY (May 23-August 19, 2001); Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Houston, TX (October 14, 2001-January 6, 2002).
    American Drawings from the Permanent Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (April 19-July 12, 1998).
    Year in Review for 1986. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 4-March 15, 1987).
    Barnett Newman: The Complete Drawings, 1944-1969. Baltimore Museum of Art (April 29 - June 17, 1979); Detroit Institute of Arts (August 7 - September 30, 1979); Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago (November 2, 1979 - January 6, 1980); Metropolitan Museum of Ar,t New York (February 12 - April 9, 1980); Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (September 8 - October 19, 1980); Musée Naitonal d'Art Moderne/Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris (November 12, 1980 - January 4, 1981); Museum Ludwig, Cologne (February 9 - April 5, 1981); Kunstmuseum Basel (May 11 - July 5, 1981).
    200 Years of Watercolor Painting in America: An Exhibition Commemorating the Centennial of the American Watercolor Society. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY (December 8, 1966 - January 29, 1967).
  • {{cite web|title=Untitled|url=false|author=Barnett Newman|year=1959|access-date=18 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1986.4