All along Manhattan's art-vending 57th Street last week, abstraction reared its cipher head. Most of its exhibiting practitioners were under 50, but none of them happened to be children, no matter what their work seemed to indicate. Among the standouts:
¶ Barnett Newman, 45, was a man of few linesone, or at the most two, to a picture. The lines ran straight up & down, bisecting huge canvases that were painted one bright color apiece. "My search," said Newman with massive dignity, "is for a picture that is simple and self-evident. What is there is there." His ultimate purpose, Newman added, was...
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