After “The Wild”: Contemporary Art from The Barnett and Annalee Newman Foundation Collection

The Jewish Museum presents After “The Wild”: Contemporary Art from The Barnett and Annalee Newman Foundation Collection, an exhibition highlighting contemporary artworks by 47 intergenerational and internationally-based artists made between 1963 and 2023. These works are part of a larger gift  to the Museum in 2018 comprising artworks made by the recipients of the Barnett and Annalee Newman Foundation Award. After “The Wild”: Contemporary Art from The Barnett and Annalee Newman Foundation Collection is on view at the Jewish Museum through October 1, 2023.

Barnett Newman (1905-1970) is among the most influential artists associated with Abstract Expressionism. Largely overlooked by critics, curators, and collectors until his later years, he was nonetheless a stalwart and generous supporter of his colleagues, befriending and mentoring countless younger artists. To them, Newman appeared not as an old master but as a true peer—curious, engaged, and as eager to delve into the nuances of technique as to art’s philosophical underpinnings. After his death, Annalee Newman, his widow, created The Barnett and Annalee Newman Foundation to help further the spirit of great art that Barnett Newman so clearly exhibited, by giving grants to artists from 2004 to 2020. Diverse in style, training, background, and age, the Foundation’s grantees—whose works comprise this exhibition—share Newman’s seriousness of purpose, as well as his unflagging drive to explore the outer limits of his own ideas. 

The exhibition title is inspired by Barnett Newman’s 1950 painting The Wild. Standing at 8 feet tall and a mere 1 ½ inches wide, the work consists of a dark orange “Zip” set against razor thin bands of black. It contrasts sharply with the heroically scaled paintings for which Newman is well known. In Newman’s own account, The Wild was meant to test whether something modest could hold its own against something grand: in its first presentation, it was shown opposite the painting Vir Heroicus Sublimis (1950-51), a room-filling magnum opus. Both works will be invoked within an introductory space that conjures Newman’s second solo exhibition at Betty Parsons Gallery in 1951, a consequential moment in both the artist’s trajectory and the emergence of what is now called contemporary art. 

After “The Wild”: Contemporary Art from The Barnett and Annalee Newman Foundation Collection is organized by guest curator Kelly Taxter, with Shira Backer, Leon Levy Associate Curator, The Jewish Museum. Exhibition design is by Ivi Diamantopoulou and Jaffer Kolb, with Nashwah Ahmed, New Affiliates. 

The exhibition is accompanied by an audio tour available within the Jewish Museum’s digital guide on Bloomberg Connects, the free arts and culture app. Hear interviews with 11 artists including Lynda Benglis, Peter Halley, Judy Pfaff, Serge Alain Nitegeka, Sarah Sze, and Fred Tomaselli, as well as Verbal Description audio tours, designed for individuals who are blind or have low vision. Bloomberg Connects is accessible for either onsite or offsite visits and can be downloaded to any mobile device. 

The Jewish Museum is an art museum committed to illuminating the complexity and vibrancy of Jewish culture for a global audience. Located on New York City’s Museum Mile. The public may call 212.423.3200 or visit TheJewishMuseum.org for more information.