23 Quotes by Barnett Newman

The impulse of modern art is the desire to destroy beauty.

What is the explanation of the seemingly insane drive of man to be painter and poet if it is not an act of defiance against mans fall and an assertion that he return to the Garden of Eden? For the artists are the first men.

Painting, like passion, is a living voice.

The problem of a painting is physical and metaphysical, the same as I think life is physical and metaphysical.

Painting, like passion, is a living voice, which, when I hear it, I must let it speak, unfettered.

I know that it is impossible to talk about my work. And since it's impossible for me or anybody else to talk about my work, I feel I might as well talk about it.

Aesthetics is for the artist like ornithology is for the birds.

It is our function as artists to make the spectator see the world our way not his way.

Aesthetics is to artists as ornithology is to birds.