Vir Heroicus Sublimis

Barnett Newman · 1950-51

Here we have Vir Heroicus Sublimis — a painting by Barnett Newman, nineteen fifty to nineteen fifty-one. Oil on canvas — pigment ground into a slow-drying oil, which is what lets a painter go back into wet paint for days. It is one of the largest things in this museum — about 47 times the area of a typical work here. Newman was part of the abstract expressionism movement.

Medium Oil on canvas · Dimensions 7' 11 3/8" x 17' 9 1/4" (242.2 x 541.7 cm) · Credit Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Ben Heller

Hanging beside it in Gallery 402: Three Graces

Works like this one elsewhere in the museum: No. 37/No. 19 (Slate Blue and Brown on Plum), Blue Monochrome, Tehachapi II