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In these slim canvases Newman's zip has slipped
off the coloured field of paint, becoming a painting in itself.
In 1950 Newman had moved to a spacious new studio that allowed
him to make bigger canvases than ever. However, he was concerned
to ensure that the impact of his largest works was not simply
a question of their size, and so decided to make a series
of narrow vertical paintings. 'I tested myself to see whether
I was just being beguiled by these big expanses of colour.
And I did a painting eight feet high by an inch and a half
inches wide...to see if it could contain the sense of scale
that I was involved in and also that it would have the feeling
that my big paintings have.'
Newman's first foray into sculpture, a three-dimensional
zip, is also shown. Here I (To Marcia), was originally
made in plaster, and only cast in bronze some years later.
An exhibition of Giacometti's sculptures had opened in New
York in November 1950, and perhaps inspired this work. Newman's
zips have frequently been compared to Giacometti's emaciated
bronze figures, in which the human body is eroded to its essential
core.
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