Who's Afraid of Red, Yellow and Blue

Last updated
Who's Afraid of Red, Yellow and Blue I Who's Afraid of Red, Yellow, and Blue I.svg
Who’s Afraid of Red, Yellow and Blue I

Who's Afraid of Red, Yellow and Blue is a series of four large-scale paintings by Barnett Newman painted between 1966 and 1970. Two of them have been the subject of vandalistic attacks in museums. The series' name was a reference to Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? , the 1962 play by Edward Albee, which was in itself a reference to "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?", the 1933 song immortalized in Disney cartoons. [1]

Contents

Barnett Newman started the first painting in the series without a preconceived notion of the subject or end result; he only wanted it to be different from what he had done until then, and to be asymmetrical. But after having painted the canvas red, he was confronted with the fact that only the other primary colours yellow and blue would work with it; this led to an inherent confrontation with the works of De Stijl and especially Piet Mondriaan, who had in the opinion of Newman turned the combination of the three colors into a didactic idea instead of a means of expression in freedom. [2]

Who's Afraid of Red, Yellow and Blue I

This 1966 oil on canvas measures 190 by 122 cm, making it the smallest of the four. It was dedicated to Jasper Johns. [3] It was the subject of a 2006 installation by Robert Irwin at the Pace Gallery, [4] and also the centerpiece of the 2007 exhibition Who's afraid of red, yellow and blue?: Positionen der Farbfeldmalerei in the Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden. [5] It is held in a private collection. [6]

Who's Afraid of Red, Yellow and Blue II

Who's Afraid of Red, Yellow and Blue II Who's Afraid of Red, Yellow and Blue II.svg
Who’s Afraid of Red, Yellow and Blue II

This 1967 acrylic on canvas painting is part of the collection of the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart. It measures approximately 305 x 259 cm.

Who's Afraid of Red, Yellow and Blue III

Who's Afraid of Red, Yellow and Blue III Who's Afraid of Red, Yellow, and Blue III.svg
Who’s Afraid of Red, Yellow and Blue III

Measuring 224 by 544 cm, this 1967 painting is part of the collection of the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. It was attacked with a knife by Gerard Jan van Bladeren in 1986 [7] and restored by Daniel Goldreyer in 1991. The restoration initially cost some $400,000, but was heavily attacked by critics who claimed that subtle nuances in the three monochrome sections had been lost and that Goldreyer had used house paints and a roller. [8] According to critics, the painting had been destroyed twice: first during the attack, and again during the restoration. Goldreyer filed a $125 million suit against the City of Amsterdam and the Museum, claiming that his reputation was damaged. [9] [10]

After lawsuits, settlements, and further restoration, the final cost of the attack was estimated to be close to $1 million. The Amsterdam city council asked for a full forensic report on the controversial restoration. [11] When the report was finished, the City of Amsterdam and Goldreyer agreed to keep it under wraps, as part of a settlement. But almost 20 years later, on 11 September 2013, the Raad van State decided the report had to be made public by the Government of Amsterdam within six weeks. [12] A week later the Volkskrant newspaper published the report's main conclusions. It confirmed that Goldreyer had indeed repainted the entire red section with acrylic paint and had used a roller to add two layers of varnish to the (initially unvarnished) painting. [13] According to the newspaper, Goldreyer's restoration has "forever destroyed" Newman's work. [14] The painting was put on display again in the Stedelijk Museum in 2014. [15]

Wim Beeren, director of the Stedelijk Museum at the time of the 1986 attack, revealed in an interview that Van Bladeren was not pleased with the restoration and called the museum to warn his successor Rudi Fuchs of a second attack. Van Bladeren entered the museum for a second time in 1997 to make good on his intentions to deface Who's Afraid of Red, Yellow and Blue III but was not able to locate the painting. He instead opted to attack a different Barnett Newman painting called Cathedra, which he slashed in a similar fashion to his first attack. Beeren recalled that the painting, not on display at the time, was in a storage facility. [16]

Who's Afraid of Red, Yellow and Blue IV

Who's Afraid of Red, Yellow and Blue IV Who's Afraid of Red, Yellow, and Blue IV.svg
Who’s Afraid of Red, Yellow and Blue IV

Who's Afraid of Red, Yellow and Blue IV was created in 1969–1970 and is the last major work by Barnett Newman. The oil on canvas painting measures 274 by 603 cm. It belongs to the collection of the Nationalgalerie in Berlin, who bought it in 1982 from Newman's widow for 2.7 million Deutschmark (roughly 1 million US dollars), partially with funds raised by the public. It was attacked on April 13, 1982, days before it would be presented to the public, by Josef Nikolaus Kleer, a 29-year-old student who claimed that the picture was a "perversion of the German flag" (the painting has vertical bands of red, yellow and blue, while the German flag has horizontal stripes in black, red and yellow), and that his actions completed the work, a reference to the title of the painting. The restoration took two years. [17] [18]

Legacy

The Who's Afraid of series has reached an iconic status in the world of modern and contemporary art, and has been the inspiration for many artworks and exhibitions.

Notes

  1. Strickland, Edward (1993). Minimalism: Origins. Indiana University Press. p. 68. ISBN   9780253213884.
  2. Newman, Barnett (1969). Art Now, New York. New York. ISBN   9780520078178.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  3. Temkin, Ann (2008). Color Chart: Reinventing Color 1950 to Today. New York: Museum of Modern Art. p. 65. ISBN   9780870707315.
  4. "Robert Irwin: Who's Afraid of Red, Yellow and Blue. Dec 9, 2006 – Feb 3, 2007". Artnet.com. Retrieved 2 April 2013.
  5. Grässlin, Karola (2007). Who's afraid of red, yellow and blue?: Positionen der Farbfeldmalerei. König. p. 167.
  6. Ruhrberg, Karl (2000). Art of the 20th century, Volume 1. Taschen. p. 289. ISBN   9783822859070.
  7. "Who's Afraid of Red, Yellow and Blue 111". Artcrimes.net. Archived from the original on 17 March 2016. Retrieved 21 March 2017.
  8. James, Barry (2 November 1991). "Roller Controversy in Amsterdam: The Restoration of Modern Art". New York Times. Retrieved 19 Sep 2013.
  9. "Who's Afraid of Red, Yellow, and Blue III". Everything Media. Retrieved 19 Sep 2013.
  10. "Nog geheim rapport laat zien: schilderij Who's afraid... voor altijd vernietigd". De Volkskrant. Retrieved 19 Sep 2013.
  11. James, Barry (2 November 1991). "Roller Controversy in Amsterdam: The Restoration of Modern Art". New York Times. Retrieved 19 Sep 2013.
  12. "Rapport Newman-doek openbaar". Nos. 11 September 2013. Retrieved 11 Sep 2013.
  13. "Rapport 'Who's afraid' ligt op straat". Nos. 19 September 2013. Retrieved 19 Sep 2013.
  14. "Nog geheim rapport laat zien: schilderij Who's afraid... voor altijd vernietigd". De Volkskrant. Retrieved 19 Sep 2013.
  15. "Who's afraid of Red,... weer te zien". Nos. 23 April 2014. Retrieved 23 Apr 2014.
  16. "99% Invisible: The Many Deaths of a Painting". 99pi.org. PRX, Radiotopia. 26 March 2019. Retrieved 28 March 2019.
  17. Gamboni, Dario (1997). The destruction of art: iconoclasm and vandalism since the French Revolution. Reaktion Books. p. 208. ISBN   9780948462948.
  18. "Who's Afraid of Red, Yellow and Blue IV, 1969–70". Artcrimes.net. Archived from the original on 2013-08-08. Retrieved 2 April 2013.
  19. Garrels, Gary (2006). Plane image: a Brice Marden retrospective. New York: Museum of Modern Art. p. 19. ISBN   9780870704468.
  20. "Kerry James Marshall: Who's Afraid of Red, Black and Green". This is Tomorrow. 10 October 2012. Retrieved 2 April 2013.
  21. Horrocks, Chris (2012). Cultures of Colour: Visual, Material, Textual. Berghahn Books. p. 29. ISBN   9780857454652.
  22. Friesen, Hans (1995). Die philosophische Ästhetik der postmodernen Kunst (in German). Königshausen & Neumann. p. 94. ISBN   9783884799970.
  23. Geller, Jacob. "Who's Afraid of Modern Art", How a Game Lives, Lost in Cult, 2024. Originally published on YouTube as "Who’s Afraid of Modern Art: Vandalism, Video Games, and Fascism", 2019.

Further reading

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wassily Kandinsky</span> Russian painter and art theorist (1866–1944)

Wassily Wassilyevich Kandinsky was a Russian painter and art theorist. Kandinsky is generally credited as one of the pioneers of abstraction in western art. Born in Moscow, he spent his childhood in Odessa, where he graduated from Odessa Art School. He enrolled at the University of Moscow, studying law and economics. Successful in his profession, he was offered a professorship at the University of Dorpat. Kandinsky began painting studies at the age of 30.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Van Gogh Museum</span> National art museum in Netherlands

The Van Gogh Museum is a Dutch art museum dedicated to the works of Vincent van Gogh and his contemporaries in the Museum Square in Amsterdam South, close to the Stedelijk Museum, the Rijksmuseum, and the Concertgebouw. The museum opened on 2 June 1973, and its buildings were designed by Gerrit Rietveld and Kisho Kurokawa.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Barnett Newman</span> American painter

Barnett Newman was an American artist. He has been critically regarded as one of the major figures of abstract expressionism, and one of the foremost color field painters. His paintings explore the sense of place that viewers experience with art and incorporate simplistic forms to emphasize this feeling.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Karel Appel</span> Dutch painter, sculptor, and poet (1921–2006)

Christiaan Karel Appel was a Dutch painter, sculptor, and poet. He started painting at the age of fourteen and studied at the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam in the 1940s. He was one of the founders of the avant-garde movement CoBrA in 1948. He was also an avid sculptor and has had works featured in MoMA and other museums worldwide.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Monochrome painting</span> Paintings made with a single color

Monochromatic painting has played a significant role in modern and contemporary Western visual art, originating with the early 20th-century European avant-gardes. Artists have explored the non-representational potential of a single color, investigating shifts in value, diversity of texture, and formal nuances as a means of emotional expression, visual investigation into the inherent properties of painting, as well as a starting point for conceptual works. Ranging from geometric abstraction in a variety of mediums to non-representational gestural painting, monochromatic works continue to be an important influence in contemporary art.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Color field</span> Art movement

Color field painting is a style of abstract painting that emerged in New York City during the 1940s and 1950s. It was inspired by European modernism and closely related to abstract expressionism, while many of its notable early proponents were among the pioneering abstract expressionists. Color field is characterized primarily by large fields of flat, solid color spread across or stained into the canvas creating areas of unbroken surface and a flat picture plane. The movement places less emphasis on gesture, brushstrokes and action in favor of an overall consistency of form and process. In color field painting "color is freed from objective context and becomes the subject in itself."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam</span> Art museum in Amsterdam, Netherlands

The Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, colloquially known as the Stedelijk, is a museum for modern art, contemporary art, and design located in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Staatsgalerie Stuttgart</span> Art museum in Stuttgart, Germany

The Staatsgalerie Stuttgart is an art museum in Stuttgart, Germany, it opened in 1843. In 1984, the opening of the Neue Staatsgalerie designed by James Stirling transformed the once provincial gallery into one of Europe's leading museums.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lucio Fontana</span> Italian painter

Lucio Fontana was an Argentine-Italian painter, sculptor and theorist. He's known as the founder of Spatialism and exponent of abstract painting as the first known artist to slash his canvases - which symbolizes an utter rejection of all prerequisites of art.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Piet Mondrian</span> Dutch painter (1872–1944)

Pieter Cornelis Mondriaan, after 1906 known as Piet Mondrian, was a Dutch painter and art theoretician who is regarded as one of the greatest artists of the 20th century. He is known for being one of the pioneers of 20th-century abstract art, as he changed his artistic direction from figurative painting to an increasingly abstract style, until he reached a point where his artistic vocabulary was reduced to simple geometric elements.

Ernst van de Wetering was a Dutch art historian and an expert on Rembrandt and his work.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jo Baer</span> American minimalist artist (born 1929)

Josephine Gail Baer is an American painter associated with minimalist art. She began exhibiting her work at the Fischbach Gallery, New York, and other venues for contemporary art in the mid-1960s. In the mid-1970s, she turned away from non-objective painting. Since then, Baer has fused images, symbols, words, and phrases in a non-narrative manner, a mode of expression she once termed "radical figuration." She lives and works in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Philip Taaffe</span> American artist

Philip Taaffe is an American artist, who has shown his works all around the world. His work sometimes blended motifs from multiple cultures.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vandalism of art</span> Intentional damage of an artwork

Vandalism of art is intentional damage of an artwork. The object, usually exhibited in public, becomes damaged as a result of the act, and remains in place right after the act. This may distinguish it from art destruction and iconoclasm, where it may be wholly destroyed and removed, and art theft, or looting.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rudi Fuchs</span> Dutch art historian and curator (born 1942)

Rudolf Herman "Rudi" Fuchs is a Dutch art historian and curator.

Woman Ironing is a 1904 oil painting by Pablo Picasso that was completed during the artist's Blue Period (1901—1904). This evocative image, painted in neutral tones of blue and gray, depicts an emaciated woman with hollowed eyes, sunken cheeks, and bent form, as she presses down on an iron with all her will. A recurrent subject matter for Picasso during this time is the desolation of social outsiders. This painting, as the rest of his works of the Blue Period, is inspired by his life in Spain but was painted in Paris.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sophia Adriana de Bruijn</span> Dutch museum founder

Sophia Adriana de Bruijn or Sophia Adriana Lopez Suasso-de Bruyn was a Dutch museum founder in Amsterdam.

<i>The Preacher Eleazar Swalmius</i> Painting by Rembrandt

The Preacher Eleazar Swalmius is a 1637 oil-on-canvas painting by the Dutch artist Rembrandt. It is currently owned by the Royal Museum of Fine Arts in Antwerp. The painting has been certified a real Rembrandt. The painting was listed in 1727 in the catalog of the Duke of Orléans collection, as a portrait of an Amsterdam mayor by Rembrandt. It remained in the noble family's possession until 1792, when Duke Louis-Philippe-Joseph sold the entire collection to finance his political career and pay off debts. The painting passed through several English collections into the hands of the Bourgeois brothers, art dealers from Cologne, who sold the painting as an original Rembrandt to the museum in 1886. The painting was stored away for a long time due to doubts cast over its authenticity.

<i>Wheatfield Under Thunderclouds</i> 1890 painting by Vincent van Gogh

Wheatfield Under Thunderclouds is an 1890 oil painting by Vincent van Gogh. The painting measures 50.4 cm × 101.3 cm. It depicts a relatively flat and featureless landscape with fields of green wheat, under a foreboding dark blue sky with a few heavy white clouds. The horizon divides the work almost into two, with shades of green and yellow below and shades of blue and white above. Since 1973 it has been on permanent loan to the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam.