By Jim Hagarty
1990
As the controversy swirls around the National Gallery of Canada’s $1.8 million purchase of a painting called Voice Of Fire – a large canvas painted blue with a big red stripe running up the middle – this week a culture critic in another newspaper helpfully tells lowlifes such as I who might be inclined to criticize the painting what our proper attitude toward the “work” should be.
To begin with, the critic tells her readers, Voice Of Fire is unique among the five “large scale works” American artist Barnett Newman did because of its “horizontal orientation.”
And then she describes it for us:
“The work is a panel with three horizontal bands of color – two of ultramarine blue and one of cadmium red burning up the middle. Because the stripes are horizontal, of equal width and palindromic (the same in both directions), there are no hierarchical connotations. The stripes are equal but different.”
For those of us who’d been reading all sorts of hierarchical connotations into the painting, it was a relief to find out there aren’t any.
And to further help us understand Voice Of Fire, the newspaper critic advises us to ask ourselves these questions about it.
“Is the red holding the blue together or pushing it apart?”
Now that I think about it, this painting may not be just a big red stripe on a big blue canvas. Maybe it’s two big blue stripes on a big red canvas.
“What do the issues of togetherness and separateness, of being distinct yet equal, mean to me, to my relationships, to the Canadian experience?”
Being together and separate, to me, means having a fight with a friend then riding with that person in a car to Toronto.
“What associations do the colours red and blue bring to mind?”
Red makes me think of apples, Montreal Canadiens, and the soil in Prince Edward Island. Blue makes me think recycling boxes, my livingroom furniture and the colour my finger turned when I hit it with a hammer last week.
“Does this painting make me want to stand tall and take a stand or does it make me feel like I’m already there, with a sense of belonging, of place and of power?”
Yes. Oh yes. Voice Of Fire gives me a sense of belonging like I’ve never had before. And power? Why, I can do anything now. Anything.
Thank you Barnett Newman.
“Does the size of the work frighten me or make me feel sheltered and protected?”
No, it doesn’t frighten me at all. In fact, it’s so big, if a thunderstorm came up, I could tear it apart and make a shelter out of it.
“Do I feel proud to share ownership in this valuable investment?”
Proud doesn’t begin to describe it. I’m fairly bursting with pride. The next time some guy puts down Canadians, he’ll have me to deal with.
“Back off, buddy!” I’ll say. “I own Barnett Newman’s Voice Of Fire.”
That’ll shut him – and his hierarchical connotations – up.
