David Diao’s painterly tributes to Barnett Newman explore the contradictory legacies of Modernism

David Diao (born 1943) has long turned to Barnett Newman’s work as a spur and a foil to his own. This richly illustrated catalog surveys his sustained fascination with the Abstract Expressionist master. Diao worked as an art handler in his 20s and installed Newman’s Stations of the Cross at the Guggenheim in 1966—a signal event that he credits with setting his own course as a painter. On Barnett Newman, 1991–2023 documents a cycle of paintings that tabulate the elder artist’s career through lushly painted charts, lists and diagrams that filter geometric abstraction through the lens of tribute. An original essay by Jeffrey Weiss details the complex blend of reverence and wry humor for which Diao has become known, citing this series as emblematic of his “foundational critical ambivalence regarding modernism—its role as a source of pleasure and skepticism in equal measure.”

Text by: Jeffrey Weiss