File:Newman’s revenge (47731008222).jpg

Newman’s revenge

Barnett Newman’s ‘Voice of Fire’ on display at the National Art Gallery (NAC) in Ottawa, Canada. Although I am a fan of abstract art, I have many friends and colleagues who are not, so I found this story quite amusing - particularly as during this visit to the NAC there was much discussion about the merits of this particular piece.

“In 1990, the National Gallery bought Barnett Newman’s abstract painting Voice of Fire, which raised a chorus of voices of ire. The huge canvas — 5.5 metres or 18 feet tall, and nothing more than a vertical red stripe between two bands of blue — was created by Newman for Expo 67 in Montreal, where it hung in Buckminster Fuller’s iconic geodesic dome, otherwise known as the United States pavilion.

By 1990 Voice of Fire had for two years been on loan and hanging, without public fuss, in the National Gallery. Then news broke that the gallery had bought the painting for $1.76 million and, well, sacre bleu et rouge! “My kids could paint that” was a refrain from those who don’t appreciate abstract art. Federal politicians played to their base constituencies by demanding that something should be done, while writers of letters to the editor dismissed the painting on the basis of, “I don’t like it, therefore it cannot be art.” Some opponents at least mounted an argument, saying the money should have been spent on works by Canadian artists — as if national galleries only buy art made by their own nationals. Even the Citizen wrote in an editorial (sigh) arguing the money should have been spent on Canadian art. One would think the gallery didn’t already own tens of thousands of works by Canadian artists, and buy many more every year.

Nothing came of the kerfuffle, and public attention moved onto some other outrage. What wisdom 24 years do bring. Recently, a senior member of today’s National Gallery personnel mentioned to me, off the record, that Voice of Fire is “worth well over $40 million today.” In fact, earlier this year a Newman painting sold at auction in New York City for $84.2 million US (the currency of international art sales). That doesn’t mean Voice of Fire is worth as much, but it’s very conservative to estimate its value at $50 million US. Not a bad return on $1.76 million CDN over 24 years.”