The Three

Date1962

Maker Barnett Newman American, 1905-1970

Object number2015.6

ProvenanceThe artist; [M. Knoedler & Co., Inc., New York]; purchased from gallery by Virginia and Bagley Wright, Seattle, Washington, 1969; to Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington, 2015

Photo CreditPhoto: Paul Macapia

Exhibition HistoryNew York, New York, M. Knoedler & Co., Inc., Barnett Newman, Mar. 25 - Apr. 19, 1969. No catalogue. Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, The Virginia and Bagley Wright Collection: Artists of the Sixties, May 23 - June 29, 1969. No catalogue. New York, New York, Museum of Modern Art, Barnett Newman, Oct. 19, 1971 - Jan. 10, 1972. New York, New York, Charles Cowles Gallery, The Heroic Sublime, May 31 - July 11, 1986 Los Angeles, California, Museum of Contemporary Art, Individuals: A Selected History of Contemporary Art, 1945-86, Dec. 10 1986 - Jan. 10, 1987. Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, The New York School: 1945-1965, Nov. 23, 1988 - Jan. 29, 1989. Berlin, Germany, Zeitgeist-Gesellschaft, Martin-Gropius-Bau, Amerikanische Kunst Im 20. Jahrhundert, May 8 - July 25, 1993. No catalogue. Pullman, Washington, Washington State University Museum of Art, 3 Degrees of Cool, Jan. 6 - Feb. 29, 2004. Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, SAM at 75: Building a Collection for Seattle, May 5 - Sept. 9, 2007. Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Big Picture: Art After 1945, July 23, 2016 - May 16, 2021. Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, City of Tomorrow: Jinny Wright and the Art That Shaped a New Seattle, Oct. 23, 2020 - Jan. 18, 2021. Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Reverberations: Contemporary Art and Modern Classics, Dec. 22, 2022 - ongoing [on view Dec. 22, 2022 - June 11, 2023].Published ReferencesHess, Thomas B. Barnett Newman. New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1971; p. 78. Rosenberg, Harold. Barnett Newman. New York: Harry Abrams Inc., 1978 (reprinted 1992); p. 126. Russell, John. “Art: ‘Heroic Sublime, or the Use of the Stripe.” The New York Times, June 13, 1986. Heidi Colsman-Freyberger and Richard Shiff. Barnett Newman: A Catalogue Raisonne. New York: The Barnett Newman Foundation in association with New Haven: Yale University Press, 2004; p. 125, 135, 300, 301. Ishikawa, Chiyo, ed. A Community of Collectors: 75th Anniversary Gifts to the Seattle Art Museum. Seattle: Seattle Art Museum, 2007; p. 42, reproduced p. 43.

Credit LineGift of the Virginia and Bagley Wright Collection, in honor of the 75th Anniversary of the Seattle Art Museum

Dimensions76 1/4 x 72 in. (193.7 x 182.9 cm)

MediumOil on raw canvas