Lace Curtain for Mayor Daley

Contemporary Art

1968

Barnett Newman
American, 1905-1970

Known as an innovative abstract painter, Barnett Newman made a small but significant body of sculptural work, from which Lace Curtain for Mayor Daley stands out as uncommonly literal and blatantly political. Newman made this sculpture in the fall of 1968 for an exhibition organized by Chicago’s Richard Feigen Gallery as a forum for artists to protest the brutal treatment of anti–Vietnam War demonstrators during the previous summer’s Democratic National Convention, which was held in Chicago. Richard J. Daley, then mayor, was largely seen as responsible for the violent police tactics deployed. What Newman called a “Lace Curtain“ is in reality a hefty screen constructed from barbed wire and splashed with bloodred paint.

Status: Currently Off View
Department: Contemporary Art

Artist: Barnett Newman
Title: Lace Curtain for Mayor Daley
Place: United States (Artist's nationality:)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: 1968
Medium: Cor-ten steel, galvanized barbed wire, and enamel paint
Dimensions: 177.8 × 121.9 × 25.4 cm (70 × 48 × 10 in.)
Credit Line: Gift of Annalee Newman
Reference Number: 1989.433

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