Newman’s zips act as a kind of intervention or temporal event that differentiates the canvas, preventing Being from falling into the anonymous and impersonal il y a. The zip is what might be described as ecstatic temporality (ecstatic from the Ancient Greek ek “out” + histanai “to place, cause to stand out”). Time not only gives sense or meaning to Being, it marks the emergence of sensation, the physical materiality of something or someone

Mather, Richard

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‘It is a place, Makom, where each man may be called up’:  Being and time in Barnett Newman’s art    By Richard Mather   ‘Even if you don't know Newman's place in art history, walking into a             space full of his paintings can inspire contemplation. They give you           nothing and everything to look at, these huge canvases whose only           subject is themselves, enveloping you in the moment, confronting you          with seemingly pure fields of color and contrast.’   1 In an 1965 interview with art critic David Sylvester, Jewish-American          artist Barnett Newman stated that his overwhelming ​Vir Heroicus Sublimis          (painted in 1950-51) “should give man a sense of place: that he knows he's              there, so he's aware of himself.” The notion of place​ rather than space​ plays an               important role in Newman’s work. Space is relatively unimportant to him           1 ​Molly Glentzer, “A different stripe Barnett Newman,” ​Houston Chronicle, <​https://www.houstonchronicle.com/entertainment/arts-theater/article/A-different-stripe-Barnett-Newman-6236750.php​>  because it is common property, without identity. Place, by contrast, takes into            account both time​ and consciousness. It is ​place that generates in the viewer a              “feeling” of his or her own “totality,” of their own “separateness” and            “individuality” as they stand before his painting:  “[T]he painting should give man a sense of place: that he knows            he's there, so he's aware of himself. In that sense he relates to me              when I made the painting because in that sense I was there ... To              me that sense of place has not only a sense of mystery but also has               a sense of metaphysical fact. I have come to distrust the episodic,            and I 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 and the same time of his connection to others,            who are also separate.”  2 That Newman was given to metaphysical pronouncements will not be          surprising to those who are familiar with his writings on art. Newman had a              philosophical background and was later exposed to some of the existential ideas            of Martin Heidegger and Jean-Paul Sartre. Indeed, Heidegger and Sartre’s          2 ​Barnett Newman, “Interview with David Sylvester,” ​Barnett Newman: Selected Writings and            Interviews.  preoccupation with ​being​ (being-in-the-world, being-for-itself etc) can be seen         in some of the titles of Newman’s work: ​Right Here​ ; ​Here​ ; and ​Not There-Here​ ,              among others. Many critics have noted the significance of place and its Hebrew           correlate, ​makom,​ which means “place” but is also a name of God (​ha-makom​ )             in Judaism. The Midrash (Bereishit Rabbah 68:5) explains that God is the place             of the world, and yet the world is not his place. This idea resonated with               Newman, according to Harry Cooper, curator and head of modern and           contemporary art at the National Gallery. “He hoped such a place would be             created between his art and the viewer,” Cooper remarked.   3Indeed, Newman used the term ​makom in 1963 when describing his           design for a synagogue:  “It is a place, Makom, where each man may be called up to stand              before the Torah to read his portion ... My purpose is to create a              place, not an environment ... Here in this synagogue, each man sits,            private and secluded in the dugouts, waiting to be called, not to            ascend a stage, but to go up to the mound [​bimah​ ]where, under the             tension of that "Tzim-tzum" that created light and the world, he can            3 ​Menachem Wecker,. “His Cross To Bear,” ​Forward​ . <​https://forward.com/culture/159912/his-cross-to-bear​>  experience a total sense of his own personality before the Torah           and His Name.”  The space between the viewer and the artwork (or in this case the ​bimah​ )              is no longer just space, but sanctified place where the physical and metaphysical             meet. This meeting is what might be termed ​presence​ , a term that captures the              sense of physical location (here), time (the present) and awareness of self (here I              am). It seems that with the design of the synagogue, Newman intended the             worshipper to have a real sensation of “being there,” that is, the consciousness             of being present before the Torah. This awareness of being-there, this awareness            of presence, is what Newman elsewhere calls “sublime.”  Time and the ​il y a It happens that the materiality or sheer presence of Newman’s paintings           exposes us to what Jewish philosopher Emmanuel Levinas calls the ​il y a​ :             literally, “there is,” “the horror of being,” existence without being. Levinas           describes the ​il y a as impersonal, anonymous, as something that deprives            consciousness of its subjectivity. The experience of the ​il y a is an experience of               existence in which nothing happens. But it would be a mistake to think Newman’s chromatic abstractions           represent the ​il y a and nothing else. On the contrary, Newman’s mature             paintings boast a particular and distinguishing feature: the ​Newmanesque zip​ . The zip is a vertical band of color, often made with the aid of masking               tape and palette knife. Newman introduced the technique in the late 1940s and it              remained a constant feature of his work throughout the remainder of his life.             Paintings in which the zip went down the middle of the canvas (as in ​Onement               1​ ) developed into paintings where the zip was off-center, and others in which             there were several vertical zips. In some paintings, the zip is up to eleven feet               tall. (There are a few instances of horizontal zips, but the vast majority of his               paintings feature the vertical bands.) Newman’s zips act as a kind of intervention or temporal event that            differentiates the canvas, preventing Being from falling into the anonymous and           impersonal ​il y a​ . The zip is what might be described as ​ecstatic temporality              (ecstatic from the Ancient Greek ​ek "out" + ​histanai "to place, cause to stand              out”). Time not only gives sense or meaning to Being, it marks the emergence              of ​sensation​ , the physical materiality of ​something or ​someone​ . Humans, in           particular, but also some animals, are not just ​in time, they are conscious ​of​ time               and ​take account​ of time. As Claude Cernuschi points out (in ​Barnett Newman             and Heideggerian Philosophy​ ), “Humans exist ​in the present, ​with the past, and            in​  anticipation of the future.”  Time is a physical experience: To those of brought up under the influence             of Greek philosophy (which is most of us), the past is ​behind us; the future               ahead of us, while the present is where you are located at this exact moment               (hence the words ​presence and ​present​ ). The ancient Hebrews, by contrast,           thought of the past as something in front of them, as something that can be seen,                while the unknown future is hidden from our view, as something behind us,             hidden from our eyes.  Time was a dynamic process for the ancient Hebrews. Whereas the           Greeks tended to think in terms of space and stasis, the Hebrews conceived of              time as activity, the unfolding of events. In fact, this dynamic sense of time is               embedded in the four-letter Hebrew name of God: ​yhwh​ , which is a derivation             of ​yhyh​  (future), ​hyh ​ (past) and ​hwh​  (present) I mentioned earlier Newman’s association of ​makom with the synagogue.          Interestingly, inscribed over the Ark in the sanctuary of many synagogues           throughout the world are the Hebrew words דמוע התא ימ ינפל עד -- ​da lifnei mi                attah omed -- “know before whom you stand” -- which is based on a phrase               found in the Babylonian Talmud, Berakhot 28b. This, in turn, recalls God’s            words to Moses at the site of the burning bush: “...the place [​ha-makom​ ] upon              which you stand is holy soil.” And it is here that God reveals the temporal               nature of his name: ​yhwh. And so we have a close proximity of place (​makom​ ), time (​yhwh​ ) and             event (burning bush). It is also here that Moses emerges as a particular ​someone​ ,              a someone who stands in unique relation to the Divine:  “The Lord saw that he had turned to see, and God called to him from               within the thorn bush, and He said, ‘Moses, Moses!’ And he said, ‘Here I              am! [​hineni​ ]’.”  Hineni:​ Here I am. ​With the word ​hineni​ , Moses emerges from anonymity into             the self-consciousness of being-there in the presence of God. It is here, at this              time, in the presence of God, that generates in Moses what Newman might have              described as the feeling of “totality,” of his own “separateness” and           “individuality.” In fact, ​this brings us full circle to the beginning of this essay              where I cited ​Newman’s assertion that his painting ​Vir Heroicus Sublimis           “should give man a sense of place [​makom​ ]: that he knows he's there, so he's               aware of himself.”  To experience space fully, we must have a sense of time. Newman once             remarked that the sensation of presence “is the sensation of time.” “Each person             must feel it for himself,” he remarked. “The concern with space bores me. I              insist on my experiences of sensations in time -- not the ​sense​ of time but the                physical ​sensation​  of time.”  4It is the awareness of time (​yhwh​ ) that turns space into place, into ​makom              or holy ground. This, I think, is what Newman successfully captures in his huge              canvases (but also in his design for a synagogue and his sculptures). And it is               why Newman deserves to be seen not just as a New York modernist but as a                distinctly Jewish painter who manages to represent the sheer presence of being            and time without resorting to pictorial representation (“do not make graven           images”). Newman’s chromatic abstractions are, in my view, the finest          examples of a bold Jewish art that aims for the heights of the Hebraic sublime.      4 ​Barnett Newman, “Ohio, 1949​,” ​Barnett Newman: Selected Writings and Interviews.  

'It is a place, Makom, where each man may be called up': Being and time in Barnett Newman's art

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'It is a place, Makom, where each man may be called up': Being and time in Barnett Newman's art

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