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Gallery Eleven -- Modern and Contemporary Alter Gallery (176)
The Stations of the Cross: Lema Sabachthani
1958-66
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. Robert and Jane Meyerhoff Collection
The Stations of the Cross presents a virtuoso demonstration of Newman's
approach to painting. Although the series is purely abstract, it shares some of
the characteristics found in traditional religious depictions of the Passion of
Christ: its number of scenes (fourteen) and the somber mood. According to the
artist, the series takes its meaning from Christ's cry on the cross-
"Lema Sabachthani" (God, Why have you forsaken me?)-a cry that might
have come not just from Christ, but from martyrs throughout the course of human
history. Each canvas measures about 78 by 60 inches, an imposing but not
overwhelming size that Newman called "a human scale for the human cry."
Newman painted the Stations over the course of eight years, using a
palette of only black, raw canvas, and white. He wanted to work in such a way
that "the whole canvas would become color and have a sense of light."
It is apparent that Newman was not working from a formula or system, but
improvising new compositions for each painting, letting, as he said, "work
grow out of work." The restricted palette casts the device of the zip in an
especially demanding role. The zip can be a band of paint atop the raw canvas
or a band of raw canvas between two painted areas. It can be defined by brushed
bursts of paint, or clean lines. The true impossibility of reading Newman's
zips in terms of foreground and background is most apparent in the four white
Stations, as the different sections of the compositions interlock in a
richly ambiguous fashion. A fifteenth painting, titled Be II, joined the
Stations when they were first shown at the Guggenheim Museum in 1966,
and has remained with the series ever since.
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