Barnett Newman: Here

“Exhaustive. . . . Amy Newman’s biography, many years in the making, teaches us a great deal about the art world of the time. . . . I wonder . . . whether we might look at Newman with fresh eyes. If so, this biography will be a great help.”—Hal Foster, London Review of Books

“Across 700-plus pages, [Amy Newman, no relation] thrillingly explores Newman’s vexed relationship to his religion, which shaped his entire worldview, even as he exhibited certain later paintings under names derived not from the Torah but Christian texts such as the New Testament.”—Alex Greenberger, Art in America

“A definitive new biography…charting the life and work of Abstract Expressionist giant Barnett Newman. Drawing on previously unpublished sources from Newman’s archive, the book offers fresh insight into the man and the cityscape that shaped him. If you’re drawn to post-war art, the city of New York as a creative terrain, or the intersection of artist-life and myth, this one stands out as a substantial winter read.”—Lee Sharrock, Forbes

“Newman’s relationship to his religion is at the core of Amy Newman’s remarkable new book, Barnett Newman: Here…. Almost from the start, [the biography] ensures that the connection between the artist and his Jewish identity is clear. Amy Newman salts her lush prose with Yiddish words—geshray, meaning “yell,” appropriately recurs throughout the book—as she spends time elucidating this artist’s vexed spirituality…. Amy Newman…. is a vibrant storyteller…. [and] an inquisitive biographer.”—Alex Greenberger, ARTNews

“A comprehensive biography of abstract expressionist Barnett Newman (1905-1970): educator, poet, political activist, New York mayoral candidate…and, for the last 25 years of his life, a groundbreaking artist…. [Amy] Newman reveals the genesis, details, and reception of [his] paintings and sculptures… grounding the work not only in [his] life, but in the energetic postwar art world. An impressive, nuanced study.” ― Kirkus, starred review

“[Barnett Newman: Here] skillfully charts the artist’s improbable path to success. Especially welcome are [Amy Newman’s] efforts to distinguish the true chronology of Newman’s career from his retrospective tendencies toward self-mythologizing. Thoroughly explored too are the ways the painter’s Judaism informed his self-understanding as an artist and influenced his choices of titles and themes…. essential reading for those interested in understanding both the man and his work.” ― Library Journal

“Art historian Newman (no relation) had unique access to the artist’s extensive archive and devoted more than 15 years to creating the first comprehensive biography of this intriguingly volatile and charismatic artist. With perpetual detail and intricate insights, she deftly covers Barney’s family history, deep feelings about being Jewish, voracious reading, arts education, and reliance for many years on his smart and heroically hard-working wife, Annalee, to support them….[this] vibrant magnum opus gloriously reveals Barnett Newman in full.” ― Booklist, starred review

“An in-depth and definitive account of the artist’s complex life and work…. [Barnett Newman: Here] tirelessly explores the artist’s unique life, and his convictions that art was a sort of salvation”—Lauren Moya Ford, Glasstire

“This is not just the biography of an individual artist, but of an era — the late-modernist New York that incubated radical new images and ideas.” Newman’s access to the artist’s archives and decades of research allow her to present “a full-blooded portrait of an art world maverick whose influence and cultural vibe continue to resonate in our flickering digital day”—Donald Brackett, Embodied Meanings

“Amy Newman’s biography is an important cornerstone in the scholarship on Barnett Newman. What is more, her own research might be only the beginning of a new study on the artist. If you love abstract painting, the New York art scene of the mid-20th century, and great stories that shaped the Abstract Expressionist movement, this book is for you!”—Aniela Rybak-Vaganay, Daily Art Magazine

“Amy Newman shows such [a] deep understanding of [Barnett Newman] and New York’s postwar art world…He left behind only 118 finished paintings, but his influence in the Abstract Expressionist movement belies his output. Amy Newman has written a deeply researched and learned book about a complicated artist and his times that is an utter pleasure to read.”—Jim Kelly, Air Mail

“What might have seemed like gossip in another writer’s hands becomes historical evidence in [Amy] Newman’s. . . . One of the most impressive things about this subtle, light-fingered book is Newman’s unwillingness to spell things out for readers. She provides us with information; what we do with it is up to us”—Charles Darwent, Literary Review

“An exhaustive biography and essential reading for those interested in understanding both the man and his work.” ― Library Journal

“[Barnett Newman: Here] succeeds even better than other celebrated, massive artist’s biographies of Barney [Newman]’s New York peers. Much of New York Jewish life also emerges here . . .and the many details about contemporary New York artists continually enliven its own subject’s life narrative. This full, rich biography, which traces personal growth within wider cultural changes, should remain definitive as the very picture of Barnett Newman.”—Larry Silver, Images

“Important. . . . [A] stellar new biography of this determined and diligent master of his own domain.”—Donald Brackett, Critics at Large

“[Amy Newman] has produced a work commensurate with the huge ambition and size of [Barnett] Newman’s paintings, drawing on interviews, oral histories, and heretofore unseen correspondence.”—Carl Rollyson, New York Sun

“Barnett Newman: Here transports the reader deep into Barney’s rich and often self-complicated universe. . . . Here brilliantly transcends shopworn accounts of the artist’s contributions to the formation, apotheosis and eventual fracturing of Abstract Expressionism.”—Charles Duncan, Brooklyn Rail

“[An] impressive and extensive character study.”—Matthew Holman, Art Newspaper

“[A] revelatory biography – which also reads as a portrait of long-vanished New York.”—Paul Keegan, Times Literary Supplement

“Barnett Newman told tales, poked authorities, shifted shapes, pronounced truths—and became, to the surprise of many, the oracle of modern American art. How he divined his legendary ‘zip’ is the great story of Amy Newman’s biography, but the artist’s avuncular charm—he was always a Barney not just a Barnett—adds earthy seasoning to his spirited quest.”—Mark Stevens, coauthor of Francis Bacon: Revelations and de Kooning: An American Master

“No one will deny the supreme importance of Barnett Newman’s contribution to American modernism. This biography of the great visual artist and intellectual is sensitively observed, thoroughly researched, and beautifully evocative.”—Richard Shiff, coauthor of Barnett Newman: A Catalogue Raisonné

“With the sweep and rich detailing of an epic, this biography does justice to its monumental subject. Barnett Newman was a powerful painter. He was also thin-skinned, disputatious, a moralist, a born entertainer, and a lovable mensch, and Amy Newman, in a spirited account, gives us the whole bursting package.”—Sanford Schwartz, author of Artist Stories

“Amy Newman delivers an authoritative and compelling account of Barnett Newman as an artist, critic, citizen, and person. Comprehensive in coverage, insightful in analysis, and sensitive in interpretation, the result is a riveting biographical portrait of one of the most significant artists of the twentieth century.”—Michael Schreyach, author of Pollock’s Modernism