A Painter With Zip

THERE IS perhaps no major abstract painter who reached his mature style so fully formed as Barnett Newman (1905-70).

- BY MAXWELL CARTER

This was no accident, for he chose not to call himself an artist until he could become the kind of artist he longed to be. The “artist’s role,” observes Amy Newman (no relation) in her magnificent biography, “Barnett Newman: Here,” were two words