Workshop discussion #1
Peter Raue and Rebecca Casati on Barnet Newman
New National Gallery, February 28, 2024
On the occasion of the new collection presentation “Zerreisprobe”, Rebecca Casati and Peter Raue, now honorary president and chairman of FREUNDE from 1977-2008, meet to talk about the courageous, discussion-filled acquisition of the work “Who's Afraid of Red, Yellow and Blue, IV, 1969- 70” in 1982.
This work is part of a series of “Big Canvas” that was created in an art theoretical dialogue with Piet Mondrian and in the examination of the “tragic” by Adolph Gottlieb and Mark Rothko, among others, as well as the action painting of Jackson Pollock. They were exemplary in contemporary American art of the 1960s, especially the paintings of Donald Judd and Frank Stella. Dieter Honisch (director of the Nationalgalerie from 1975-1997) had a great desire to acquire this final version of the series of works for his “American Hall”.
The acquisition was highly controversial at the time in many quarters and took place amid massive public protests - the tabloid press defamed Newman's painting as the work of "an apprentice painter" and people even made death threats to Dieter Honisch. It is thanks to FREUNDE's extraordinary commitment, which went far beyond financial support, that this work is now part of the Nationalgalerie's collection.
The conversation therefore provides deep insights into the collection and club history. In addition, it offers one or two important insights for us today about the socio-political relevance of art and how to deal with it.
