Thesis (M.A.)--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Arts, 1983 / Barnett Newman's mature work i.e. from 1948 - 1970 is characterised by monumental paintings, flat planes of single colour and vertical stripes as the only pictorial element. Despite this severe reduction of form, the titles of these works suggest profound and esoteric concepts. This dichotomy of simple form and complex meaning creates a problem of understanding as there is no obvious correlation between the two. A guide to interpretation is needed and is indicated even more by the wide disparity between the interpretations by different critics. In particular T.B. Hess, in his 1971 book on Newman, introduces references to Kabbalistic themes that complicate the issue further. Newman's widow and some critics reject Hess's premise yet the image of Newman as a Kabbalist artist persists in writings as recently as 1980. This dissertation examines Hess's theories, rejects most of them and attempts alternative interpretations. Newman was a prolific writer and his stated philosophy may be studied as an index to the understanding of his work. This emerges as concerned with sublime, spiritual and heroic content; and the absence of pictorial, nostalgic references from nature is intended to evoke in the spectator a corresponding spiritual and emotional response. Whether the artist's aims were realized remains unanswered in this work because the title- form relationship is still to some extent, obscure; but it is hoped that lines of research into Newman's work other than those by Hess, are strongly suggested.

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Tese (doutorado)—Universidade de Brasília, Instituto de Artes, Departamento de Artes Visuais, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Artes, 2013. / Submitted by Alaíde Gonçalves dos Santos (alaide@unb.br) on 2014-01-30T09:42:26Z No. of bitstreams: 1 2013_VeraMarisaPugliesedeCastro.pdf: 29066073 bytes, checksum: 8eff92aa278479b1c2eff9941aa2de56 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Guimaraes Jacqueline(jacqueline.guimaraes@bce.unb.br) on 2014-01-31T13:18:35Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 2013_VeraMarisaPugliesedeCastro.pdf: 29066073 bytes, checksum: 8eff92aa278479b1c2eff9941aa2de56 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2014-01-31T13:18:35Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 2013_VeraMarisaPugliesedeCastro.pdf: 29066073 bytes, checksum: 8eff92aa278479b1c2eff9941aa2de56 (MD5) / A presente investigação se debruça sobre a associação entre os Sudários de Bené Fonteles, que formam a série Sudários / Auto-Retratos, o painel cerâmico Le Chemin de la Croix, de Henri Matisse e a exposição The Stations of the Cross. Lema Sabachtani, realizada em 1966, por Barnett Newman, assim como sobre a natureza desta associação e como ela pode ser abordada pela História da Arte, teórica e metodologicamente. Esta pesquisa trata, portanto, da espessura do olhar entre aquele que vê a obra de arte e a própria obra porque trata dos espaço-tempi em que sua percepção se abre a uma rede de relações. Diante de uma obra nos desfiguramos e reconfiguramos enquanto sua imagem se modifica. Mas quando a obra concerne a uma transformação exemplar, esses conteúdos de desdobram e se redobram em inúmeras questões, como é o caso do tema da transformação mais recorrente em nossa cultura cristã e ocidental, no grande drama expresso pela Paixão. O interesse por essas obras, portanto, foi imposta pela expressa categoria de identificação autoimpingida do artista com o tema, com o pathos do processo de criação e com a temporalidade complexa que a constelação dessas obras acaba por sedimentar. Assim, a investigação levou à reflexão sobre o impacto do jogo entre o pathos e o anacronismo sobre o discurso na História da Arte como montagem de tempos heterogêneos, baseada em pressupostos oferecidos por Aby Warburg, Walter Benjamin e Georges Didi-Huberman. _______________________________________________________________________________________ ABSTRACT / The subject of this PhD research project is the association of Henri Matisse's Chemin de la Croix, Barnett Newman's Stations of the Cross. Lema Sabachtani Exhibition and Bené Fonteles' Sudários, as well as what the order of this association and how it can be brought up by Art History, theoretically and methodologically. Therefore, this research is about of the thickness of the outlook between the one who sees the artwork and the artwork itself, because it talks about the space-times in that perception that opens itself into a web of relations. In front of an artwork we desfigure and reconfigure ourselves as the image modifies. But when the artwork approaches to a model transformation, these contents unfold and refold themselves in numerous questions. That is the case of the more recurrent transformations in our Western Christian culture, in the great drama expressed by the Passion. The interest by these artworks, therefore, was imposed by the artist’s self-inflicted identification category with the subject, with the pathos of the creation process and with the complexity of the temporality that the constellation of these works deposits. Thus, the inquiry induced to the speculation about the impact of the relation between the pathos and the anachronism about the discourse in the Art History as montage of heterogeneous times, based in presuppositions offered by Aby Warburg, Walter Benjamin and Georges Didi-Huberman.

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