Critical Inquiry
Spring 1995
Volume 21, Number 3
Excerpt from "Barnett Newman's Solo Tango" by Michael Leja:
"Like much abstract art, Barnett Newman's paintings have often been
interpreted as significantly gendered. His case is also typical
insofar as the interpretive processes by which gender has been located
in his work ordinarily have been primitive. Masculinity is situated in
the "phallic" vertical bands of his paintings, the so-called zips--
this term itself evokes not only speed and direction but also mundane
openings onto male organs. Newman's zips and Jackson Pollock's spurts
have sometimes been taken to symbolize the intense and aggressive
masculinity recognized as characteristic of New York school art and
its milieu. Closer scrutiny is warranted as theories of the gendering
of abstract expressionism bear increased weight in art historical
arguments-- some of which seek to interpret the art by women
associated with the movement, especially Lee Krasner and Elaine de
Kooning, and its neglect by critics; some to explore the inscription
of identity in New York school art; and some to establish gender as a
significant factor in the development of postmodern reactions against
abstract expressionist high modernism. The case of Barnett Newman is
especially valuable to such projects. His own considerable
difficulties with critical reception hinged on the gendering of his
art, or so I will argue. Moreover, his eccentric handling of gendered
metaphors brings into sharper focus abstract expressionism's
distinctive and complex uses of gender in the registration of
authorial subjectivity. And the contested status of Newman's work,
seen as simultaneously high modern and postmodern, makes it a crucial
case study for discerning the character of the divide...."
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