“Red, Yellow, and Blue Around The World”
Who's Afraid of Red, Yellow, and Blue IV, 1969-1970
Oil on canvas
Who's Afraid of Red, Yellow and Blue is a series of four large-scale paintings by Barnett Newman painted between 1966 and 1970. “The three primary colors have been an expression for a universal consciousness of time since the Dutch De Stijl movement of the 1920’s”. De Stijl, a Dutch artist movement, was founded in 1917 in Leiden, Netherlands. The artists of this movement were known to simplify visual compositions to vertical and horizontal, and they also chose to limit the use of color to only black, white, red, blue and yellow.
It seems as though great art is always connected with great craft, the ability to make something skillfully.
But yes, I am that person that has gone through contemporary art museums saying to myself “well I can draw that and so can a 3 year old child”. I am that person that walks right past the art that is perhaps worth more than my college tuition (or much more). But today I tried not to do that. I looked at paintings of squares and small doodles and waited for my soul to respond!
So how can some people sit and look at paintings of 3 primary colors for hours on end? This had reminded me of The Darwinian Theory of Beauty (which I had written a paper on during John Keller’s Global Theater class). For those of you unfamiliar with this theory, it is essentially a concept in which the idea of beauty is core part of human nature with deep evolutionary origins. I had spent many hours wondering how Dennis Dutton’s theory could be justified and considered accurate when the things humans call beautiful are so different? Humans have a wide variety of what we consider to be beautiful. This ranges from art, natural landscapes to human actions. Dennis Dutton makes a compelling case that although there are differences among the arts, there are also universal, and cross cultural, aesthetic pleasures and values that modern humans share.
Here I have attached the link to the TED talk Dennis Dutton presented in 2010 (its worth your time, trust me)
A universal trait is that humans see BEYOND the skill; we see what it takes to do the activity. We value effort, persistence, and meticulous workmanship. I have learned that most contemporary art is made with “very low level of skill and very high levels of analyzing it to death... Abstract takes no less skill than photo-realistic. And only that executed with tremendous skill carries the potency and power” (Doug Garnett). I had found this quote deep in a reddit thread but I think it conveys what I am trying to say very well.
After spending time looking through the pictures I had taken in front of the art when I arrived back at the hostel, I found an appreciation of the art. I became frustrated with myself that I had not seen the beauty in the painting prior. I was that silly tourist mocking the art while wearing a green fanny pack and even more embarrassing, socks with Birkenstocks. By reading on the legacy and importance of Barnett Newman's work, I no longer see the painting simply as the colors red, blue, and yellow. Now is see the large canvas as something which took persistence. Similar to Dutton's argument in the TED talk, maybe I find beauty within effort. This painting has the power to evoke emotion, just like any other sculpture, painting, etc that we have seen in other museums. Maybe I will no longer be the person who quickly runs through contemporary/ abstract art exhibits because I ‘don’t find it impressive enough’. Sometimes you just need to take a step back to take it all in.
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