| First Station | |
| Artist: | Barnett Newman |
| Year: | 1958 |
| Medium: | Magna on canvas |
| Height Metric: | 197.8 |
| Width Metric: | 153.7 |
| Height Imperial: | 77 7/8 |
| Width Imperial: | 60 1/2 |
| Museum: | National Gallery of Art |
| City: | Washington, D.C. |
| Fourteenth Station | |
| Artist: | Barnett Newman |
| Year: | 1965/1966 |
| Medium: | Acrylic and Duco on canvas |
| Height Metric: | 198.1 |
| Width Metric: | 152.2 |
| Height Imperial: | 78 |
| Width Imperial: | 59 15/16 |
| Museum: | National Gallery of Art |
| City: | Washington, D.C. |
The Stations of the Cross is a series of fifteen abstract expressionist paintings created between 1958 and 1966 by Barnett Newman, often considered to be his greatest work.[1] It consists of fourteen paintings, each named after one of Jesus's fourteen Stations, followed by a coda, Be II. Unlike most depictions of the Stations of the Cross, Newman did not intend for this to be a narrative journey of Jesus's suffering. Rather, it was intended to evoke the central question of the Passion, lema sabachthani (why have you forsaken me?).[2] The secular, Jewish Newman used this central theme of Christian theology to probe the human condition rather than towards its historical purpose of devotion or worship.[3]
The series has been seen as a memorial to the victims of the Holocaust.[4]
The painting series was unveiled at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in 1966, in an exhibition titled The Stations of the Cross: Lema Sabachthani.[5] [6] [7]
The National Gallery of Art bought the paintings in 1987 from Newman's widow for an estimated $5 to $7 million, through a donation from Robert and Jane Meyerhoff.[8] [9] They were put on permanent display.[10]
| April 20June 19, 1966 | Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum | New York City | The Stations of the Cross: Lema Sabachthani | |
| October 21, 1971January 10, 1972 | Museum of Modern Art | New York City | Barnett Newman[11] [12] | |
| June 1, 1978January 14, 1979 | National Gallery of Art | Washington, DC | American Art at Mid-Century: The Subjects of the Artist[13] [14] [15] | |
| May 31July 13, 1980 | Schloss Charlottenburg | Berlin | Signs of Faith, Spirit of the Avant-Garde: Religious Tendencies in 20th Century Art | |
| March 24July 7, 2002 | Philadelphia Museum of Art | Philadelphia | Barnett Newman[16] | |
| September 19, 2002January 5, 2003 | Tate Modern | London | ||
| June 7October 12, 2014 | de Young Museum | San Francisco | Modernism from the National Gallery of Art: The Robert + Jane Meyerhoff Collection[17] | |
| March 14June 7, 2015 | Miho Museum | Kyoto | Barnett Newman: The Stations of the Cross[18] |