Barnett Newman Achilles

A broad swath of brilliant, crimson-red paint sweeps down from the top edge of this canvas to fill most of this abstract, vertical composition. The sides of the red field are straight, and the bottom edge is irregular. The red is mottled and streaked. The areas to each side of the red field and along the bottom of the canvas are coffee brown. A slender drip of the brown has fallen down the red area, near the right bottom corner. The artist signed and dated the painting near the lower right corner of the red field: “Barnett Newman 1952.”