The Impossibility of Representing the Sacrifice of Abraham and Isaac in Barnett Newman’s Painting

Abstract

One of the archetypes of the Judeo–Christian (and Muslim) sacrifice is the story of Abraham and his beloved son, Isaac. The central element of the Akedah (Binding of Isaac) narrative, which moves not only theological but also philosophical discourse, is the vulnerability of the human body, the depiction of which is unimaginable in both the Jewish and Muslim religious beliefs. The sacrifice and body, as well as the ancient correspondence between these two, can be visualized in Barnett Newman’s painting Abraham (MoMa, New York/NY, 1949) created in the decade of the end of World War II. This study interprets the painting, which is painted on a dark background, as a strange and outstanding work of Newman’s abstract expressionism. The nonfigurative image creates an opportunity for a diversity of interpretations. These interpretations can be traced back from the biographical context through the national trauma of the twentieth-century Holocaust to the biblical book of Genesis. In the course of theology and comparative literature and cultural studies interpretations, the visualization of the drama of Abraham and Isaac gradually emerges, deconstructing again and again the approaches that seemed to be predictable before. The study ventures to compare Newman’s painting with as many interpretations of the title “Abraham” as possible, so that such comparisons may lead to just as many different interpretations of the image and the text.

Keywords

• barnett newman
• sacrifice and body
• abrahamic cycle
• sacrifice in the bible
• interarts studies
• cultural studies
• systematic theology
• biblical theology
• comparative literature
• abraham and his child