“Ta chi ta sa” Confronting Barnett Newman in Washington D.C.

As the third step, I will move to the United States, the hometown of Newman, who created and led the abstract expressionism. It was scheduled to be held in 2020, the year of the 50th anniversary of Newman's death, but it was postponed due to the influence of COVID-19. I have been interacting with the National Gallery of Art since 2019, and official permission was granted in January 2020. I will carry out the performance there and record it with videos and photos.

The work "The Stations of the Cross" is a series of 14 paintings of almost the same size (190 cm x 152 cm), all of which are simple and stoic paintings with monochrome surfaces, vertical lines, and a little faint texture of the brush. Although the title seems to be religious, Newman himself describes this series as "the story of each man's agony", "an unanswerable cry ", and a story about all ordinary people*. Isn't there any story of suffering for every individual in 2020 and 2021? Coincidentally, the word "station" comes from the Latin "stare" meaning "stand", and it is also part of the message that Newman put in the title.
Newman insisted, "my zip does not divide my paintings. ... but it unites the thing. It creates a totality."* Is it possible to confront the space surrounded by the fourteen paintings of "The Stations of the Cross" displayed on the four large walls of the exhibition room, associating deeply myself with each painting? Is it possible to create the wholeness of the space by standing in the middle position surrounded by the series of the works? It must be a very interesting challenge what I can show to Americans, if I can draw an auxiliary line for today's interpretation of this universal work, after 50 years of his death.
(May 2021)