Acknowledgments

Shiff, Richard; Mancusi-Ungaro, Carol C.; Colsman-Freyberger, Heidi

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Acknowledgments

Richard Shiff, Carol C. Mancusi-Ungaro, Heidi Colsman-Freyberger

Barnett Newman: A Catalogue Raisonné

~Many generously contributed to the preparation of this essay. For memories of Barnett Newman and those close to him, I thank especially Robert Murray, Pierre Schneider, Alan P. Power, and Joanna Koss, as well as Sylvia Pollock, Piero Dorazio, and Everett Ellin. A number of fellow Newman scholars were particularly helpful in sharing their thoughts and offering good...

Author

Richard Shiff, Carol C. Mancusi-Ungaro, Heidi Colsman-Freyberger

PublisherYale University Press

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-20946

Acknowledgments

Many generously contributed to the preparation of this essay. For memories of Barnett Newman and those close to him, I thank especially Robert Murray, Pierre Schneider, Alan P. Power, and Joanna Koss, as well as Sylvia Pollock, Piero Dorazio, and Everett Ellin. A number of fellow Newman scholars were particularly helpful in sharing their thoughts and offering good advice: Yve-Alain Bois, Catherine Craft, Ann Gibson, Jean-Claude Lebensztejn, Mollie McNickle, and Gabriele Schor. The research organized by Ann Temkin and her assistant Melissa Ho in connection with the Philadelphia Museum of Art Barnett Newman retrospective of 2002 was an illuminating guide. Other academics, curators, and archivists graciously offered essential pieces of information: James Cuno, Douglas Dryden, Linda Freaney, Sima Godfrey, Leonard Langer, Joachim Pissarro, Sally Promey, Nan Rosenthal, John Paul Russo, and Judith Stein. I thank Mark Schlesinger for information about painters’ materials and Sherry Smith for locating archival material. Finally, I feel a very special gratitude toward those students, all accomplished professionals, who worked so ably as assistants at different stages of my continuing Newman research: Megan Granda Bahr, Jacqueline Clarke, Eileen Costello, Charlotte Cousins, Alexander Dumbadze, Katie Robinson Edwards, Mette Gieskes, Anne Collins Goodyear, Valerie Hellstein, James Lawrence, Justine Price, Lane Relyea, and Katy Siegel.

Richard Shiff

One of the principal tasks in the preparation of this catalogue has been to examine thoroughly as many paintings by Barnett Newman as possible. In this formidable undertaking, my associates and I have relied on the assistance and generosity of colleagues who offered access to their technical records and conservation studios. For their time and effort extended on behalf of the project, we thank Al Albano, Anny Aviram, Marion Barclay, Lucy Belloli, Peter Berkes, Elisabeth Bracht, Mary Bustin, Jim Coddington, Betsy Court, Dana Cranmer, Paula De Cristofaro, Michael Duffy, Pilar Sedano Espin, Christine Frohnert, Wolfram Gabler, Patricia Garland, Irene Glanzer, Marcus Gross, Paul Haner, Lawrence Hoffman, Jacques Hourrière, Eva Keller, Stephen Kornhauser, Susan Lake, Allison Langley, Elizabeth Lunning, Hanspeter Marty, Margot McFarland, Norman Muller, Gertrud Otterbeck, Suzanne Penn, Emily Rauh Pulitzer, Nan Rosenthal, Brydon Smith, Christopher Stavroudis, Morikawa Takashi, Ann Temkin, Gesine Tosin, Joyce Townsend, Louise Wijnberg, and Frank Zuccari.

In our pursuit of primary documentation, we benefited particularly from the advice and assistance of Mel Bochner, Susan Lorence, Paula Pelosi, Susanne Schnitzer, and Barbara Sprafkin. In recognition of their sustained commitment to the technical study, I would also like to thank Heather Cox, Pia Gottschaller, and William Steen, as well as Bradford Epley at the Menil Collection in Houston and Jay Krueger at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.

As the research progressed, we strove to clarify problematic media descriptions by means of scientific analysis. For their expertise and diligence in this effort, we thank Tom Learner of the Tate, London; Christopher McGlinchey of the Museum of Modern Art, New York; René de la Rie, Christopher Maines, and Suzanne Lomax of the Scientific Research Department in the Conservation Division at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; and particularly Narayan Khandekar of the Straus Center for Conservation at the Harvard University Art Museums in Cambridge, Massachusetts, who led the investigation and provided exceptional good counsel throughout the course of our research.

The exemplary files that were assembled by the artist’s wife, Annalee Newman, contain substantial information about his choice of materials. However, our understanding of Newman’s practices and technical development also owes much to the insights, interpretations, and appraisal of Robert Murray, who generously gave of his time and attention. For his gentility and infectious respect for Barnett Newman, I remain grateful. Most of our examinations of the paintings were undertaken in partnership with Yve-Alain Bois, whose insatiable curiosity, intellectual rigor, and experienced eye raised the level of the discourse and contributed to the development of ideas that shaped the technical inquiry. To him I owe my utmost respect and gratitude.

Carol C. Mancusi-Ungaro

The catalogue raisonné could not have been assembled without the help, direct or indirect, of a multitude of people. Throughout the long process of its compilation thousands of questions were patiently and graciously answered by everyone approached—among them the owners of Newman’s work; his friends, acquaintances, and fellow artists; those who collaborated with him on his sculptures, his graphics, and his architectural model; the staff, both curatorial and administrative, of museums and galleries in the United States, Europe, Asia, and Australia; archivists and librarians; conservators; researchers and scholars; and art dealers and the representatives of auction houses. I acknowledge my debt to each and every one of them for their invaluable contributions.

The catalogue is based on the scholarship of two generations, either in published form—such as the inventory catalogues of Newman’s drawings and graphics by Brenda Richardson, Hugh M. Davies, and Gabriele Schor—or gleaned in dialogue with authorities on Newman’s work, notably Yve-Alain Bois, Carol C. Mancusi-Ungaro, and Richard Shiff. I am grateful for many illuminating exchanges and keen to acknowledge that this catalogue reflects their scholarship.

The backbone of the catalogue is the archive at the Barnett Newman Foundation documenting the artist’s life and work, which Annalee Greenhouse began when she married him, in 1936, and expanded for the next six decades. Without her foresight and devotion this catalogue would never have been as complete.

Heidi Colsman-Freyberger

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