| panoramic landscape of stylized perfection, replete with palm trees and lounge chairs. The other seemingly duplicate image is differentiated only by its use of color. Both scenes have the look of a 1940s Hollywood B movie, the stars having just made their exit. Newman used a state-of-the-art digital inkjet printer to produce the color version of the image, while the black-and-white version is painted on canvas. Here the combination of technology and the hand of the artist, and the hands of his assistants, have erased the distinction between digital manipulation and painting. The technology has become completely subsumed, just another part of the process. Newman no longer seems interested in showing the effects the computer can generate; instead, he uses the computer to create exactly the image he wants to paint. |
This exhibition and the accompanying catalogue reveal a career’s worth of images that rely on the computer and other forms of technology to varying degrees. Newman has made works that have endeared him to both collectors and the public and made him a legend in Washington’s art world. He has inspired hundreds of students, many of whom are themselves well known to Washington audiences. He has persevered through difficult circumstances and has provoked thought and controversy. But what matters most to Newman is that, at the end of the day, he is a painter.
- Stacey Schmidt is the Associate Curator of Contemporary Art at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. |
