A key painter, theorist, and chronicler of Abstract Expressionism, Newman was concerned primarily with color and proportion to produce abstract evocations of transcendence. A relatively late work, Shimmer Bright features two of the painter’s signature "zips," vertical bands that segment the picture plane, hovering together near the left side of the composition. The visual effect is the presence of four "zips," as the white space mimics the width of the ultramarine blue. The attention to the left side causes Shimmer Bright to appear unbalanced, and the right side consequently seems to open up into infinite space (in the form of a six-foot square). While Newman painted earlier "zips" with rougher edges, these are sharper and more aligned with the vocabulary of Minimalism.
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Houston. Menil Collection. "Barnett Newman: The Late Work, 1965–1970," March 27–August 2, 2015, unnumbered cat. (p. 111).
Lawrence Alloway. "Notes on Barnett Newman." Art International 13 (Summer 1969), pp. 35–36, ill.
Thomas B. Hess. Barnett Newman. New York, 1969, ill. p. 82 (color).
Ellen Hoffman. "Leading American Sculptor, 'Color Painter': Artist Barnet [sic] Newman Dies." Washington Post (July 6, 1970).
Barbara Reise. "The Stance of Barnett Newman." Studio International 179 (February 1970), p. 63, fig. 35 (color).
Thomas B. Hess. Barnett Newman. Exh. cat., Museum of Modern Art, New York. New York, 1971, p. 143, ill.
Peter Plagens. "Zip: Another Magazine Article on Barnett Newman." Art in America 59 (November–December 1971), p. 63.
Lily Mark. "The Relevance of Title to Form and Content in the Mature Work of Barnett Newman." PhD diss., University of Witwatersrand, 1983, pp. 126, 157, 159, 168–70.
Maurice Tuchman inThe Spiritual in Art: Abstract Painting 1890–1985. Exh. cat., Los Angeles County Museum of Art. New York, 1986, p. 49.
Lorenz Dittmann. Farbgestaltung und Farbtheorie in der abendländischen Malerei: Eine Einführung. Darmstadt, 1987, p. 413, locates it in a private collection, N.Y.
Lisa M. Messinger in "Recent Acquisitions. A Selection: 1990–1991." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 49 (Fall 1991), pp. 70–71, ill. (color).
Stephen Polcari. Abstract Expressionism and the Modern Experience. Cambridge, 1991, pp. 204–5, fig. 141.
Barbara Burn, ed. Masterpieces of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1993, p. 309, ill. (color).
Harold Rosenberg. Barnett Newman. 2nd ed. [1st ed. 1978]. New York, 1994, fig. 106 (color).
Michael Kimmelman. "At the Met and the Modern with Richard Serra: One Provocateur Inspired by Another." New York Times (August 11, 1995), p. C26.
Michael Kimmelman. Portraits: Talking with Artists at the Met, the Modern, the Louvre and Elsewhere. New York, 1998, pp. 59–60, ill.
Armin Zweite. Barnett Newman: Paintings, Sculptures, Works on Paper. Exh. cat., Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen. Ostfildern–Ruit, Germany, 1999, pp. 141–42, 330, no. 14, ill. p. 155 (installation photo, Exh. Düsseldorf 1997), fig. 56 (color).
Hervé Vanel. "Armin Zweite. Barnett Newman: Paintings, Sculptures, Works on Paper." Les Cahiers du Musée national d’art moderne 75 (Spring 2001), p. 121.
Ann Temkin inBarnett Newman. Ed. Ann Temkin. Exh. cat., Philadelphia Museum of Art. Philadelphia, 2002, p. 67.
Heidi Colsman–Freyberger. "Catalogue Raisonné." Barnett Newman: A Catalogue Raisonné. New York and New Haven, 2004, p. 345, no. 109, ill. (color).
Carol Mancusi-Ungaro. "Barnett Newman's Pilgrimage in Paint." Reconsidering Barnett Newman: A Symposium at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Ed. Melissa Ho. Philadelphia, 2005, pp. 72, 80 n. 14.
Michelle White inBarnett Newman: The Late Work, 1965–1970. Exh. cat., Menil Collection. Houston, 2015, p. 45, ill. p. 111 (color).
Bradford A. Epley inBarnett Newman: The Late Work, 1965–1970. Exh. cat., Menil Collection. Houston, 2015, pp. 75, 77 n. 19, identifies this painting as a rare example of the artist's application of paint in horizontal strokes, as opposed to his usual vertical strokes, and posits that it was initially intended to be vertical; notes that the artist returned to oil paints for this work after using mostly acrylic, adding that the title is "highly descriptive of the visual difference oil has from acrylic".
Éric Valentin. Barnett Newman: Splendeur mystique et horreur absolue. Paris, 2015, p. 18.
Daniel Zamani inThe Shape of Freedom: International Abstraction after 1945. Ed. Ortrud Westheider, Michael Philipp, and Daniel Zamani. Exh. cat., Museum Barberini, Potsdam. Munich, 2022, p. 104, fig. 3 (color).
Barnett Newman (American, New York 1905–1970 New York)
1945
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