Individuals like Barnett Newman and Mark Rothko expanded upon Kandinsky’s reasoning that artists are responsible for philosophical thought and the advancement of society. The development of the industrial age, a dramatic spike in the population of metropolitan areas, and inconceivable atrocities witnessed in two World Wars provoked the American Modernist to communicate emotion through a simple expressive style.
They published essays and manifestos to elevate their work above the concept that abstract painting was abstract thinking, which cemented their place in the history of painting and affected the evolution of modern thought. I believe that the essential value of this work can be found when it is used as a tool to experience a subjective revelation that emanates from a spectator's own being, and I hope to communicate a similar experience through my work.
Viewing Cathedra in Amsterdam
Barnett Newman also worked in a minimal yet expressive style which was created through a process based in automatism and self-reflection. He believed automatism was “supposed to be a means with which to penetrate the inhabiting surface of the mind, stiffening with knowledge, habits, conventions, other people’s opinions, and reach to a lower layer where the ‘real’ man lives.” I also believe that a process initiated in automatism and fortified by knowledge results in a painting being a vessel for a transpersonal experience.
🖤 Annie