Lace Curtain for Mayor Daley

Barnett NewmanWW-1968-132940

1968·Cor-ten steel, galvanized barbed wire, and enamel paint·177.8 × 121.9 × 25.4 cm (70 × 48 × 10 in.)

<p>What Barnett Newman called a lace curtain is in reality a hefty screen constructed from barbed wire and splashed with blood-red paint. Known as an innovative abstract painter, the artist made this sculpture in the fall of 1968 for an exhibition organized by Chicago's Richard Feigen Gallery. The exhibition served as a forum for artists to protest the brutal treatment of anti-Vietnam War demonstrators during the previous summer's Democratic National Convention. Richard J. Daley, then mayor of Chicago, was seen as responsible for the use of violent police tactics.</p>

Catalogue

Year: 1968
Medium: Cor-ten steel, galvanized barbed wire, and enamel paint
Dimensions: 177.8 × 121.9 × 25.4 cm (70 × 48 × 10 in.)
Collection: Art Institute of Chicago
Artist: Barnett Newman

Artist

Barnett Newman

Painting

Barnett Newman was an American painter. He has been critically regarded as one of the major figures of abstract expressionism, and one of the foremost color field painters. His paintings explore the sense of place that viewers experience with art and incorporate the simplest forms to emphasize this feeling.

New York, NY, USA

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