Broken obelisk

Broken obelisk, the only sculpture in Australia by internationally renowned American artist, Barnett Newman, will be residing in the forecourt of Shoalhaven Regional Gallery for the next five years. The work is on loan from the National Gallery in Canberra as part of the ‘Sharing the National Collection’ initiative. The Federal Government’s Revive National Cultural Policy, has encouraged the loan of significant works of art to be placed in regional areas across Australia, ensuring more audiences can connect with these major artworks.

The well-known, gravity-defying work is considered a masterpiece of human engineering and artistic innovation and is one of four versions in existence. An inverted obelisk—a four-sided tapering monument from Ancient Egypt—is inserted upside down into a pyramid, another Egyptian form. The work was created during the upheaval of the civil rights movements of the 1960s in North America and has been interpreted as an anti-, or post-, monument that invites considerations of our institutions and their power.  

Barnett Newman was born and raised in New York as the son of Polish Jewish immigrants. He is known for his painting, sculpture and political activism. In 1933, he ran for mayor of his city and was motivated by issues such as the modern horrors as Nazism and the atomic bomb. He was also known for his wit and humour and once quipped: “aesthetics is to artists as ornithology is to the birds.”

The work has been welcomed by Shoalhaven Regional Gallery and visitors are encouraged to sit in the forecourt and enjoy this powerful and intriguing work.

Barnett Newman

Broken obelisk 1963/1967/2005
weathering steel
749.9 (h) x 318.8 (w) x 318.8 (d) cm, 3500 kg(weight)
National Gallery of Australia, Kamberr/Canberra
Gift of the Barnett Newman Foundation in honour of Dr Gerard Vaughan AM 2018
© The Barnett Newman Foundation, New York/ARS, New York/Copyright Agency, 2024