Stations of the Cross: Lema Sabachthani is a series of 14 black and white paintings that many consider to be the pinnacle of Barnett Newman’s artistic achievement. Initially, when Newman completed the first two canvases, he knew that he wanted to further develop the theme and create more similar paintings. Only after creating the fourth painting in 1961, Newman came to realize the subject and the layout of the series. The subject of Stations of the Cross refers to imagery that depicts Jesus Christ on the day of the crucifixion. There is a long and rich artistic tradition of depicting the Passion of Christ, including masterpieces painted by Giotto and Raphael. The first visual representations of the 14 stations began after the pilgrims returned home from the crusades. However, the Church did not formally determine the number and specific content of the stations until the 18th century. For Newman, the progression of the paintings was crucial, because it expressed continuous agony and suffering. The artist specifically selected the phrase, Lema Sabachthani (why have you forsaken me?). It is the question that has no answer, and therefore, it is the essence of the Passion of Christ. This question relates back to Abraham and even Adam, it is the original question. The question ‘why’ is the unanswerable question of human suffering.

Because of Newman’s Jewish heritage and his interest in different aspects of Jewish tradition, the series is often linked to the memory of the Holocaust. At the time, there was an established precedent for using the crucifixion as a metaphor for Jewish suffering under Nazism. For instance, Marc Chagall’s painting White Crucifixion (1938) uses the image of Jesus on the cross to emphasize the suffering of the Jewish people. Chagall covers the figure of Jesus with the tallit, a traditional garment worn by religious Jews, while the backdrop shows scenes of violence and persecution, such as the burning of a synagogue. Although Newman never mentioned the Holocaust in the context of the series, he did reiterate that new content should be presented in relation to the story of Jesus. For Newman’s generation, the Holocaust, the dropping of the atomic bomb and the Vietnam War were contemporary manifestations of human suffering.

The series was exhibited for the first time in 1966 at the Guggenheim Museum. The installation arranged the paintings in a chronological sequence and included an additional painting, Be II (1961-1964) at the end of the series. The painting First Station (1958) was the initial inspiration that drove the creation of the series. Newman’s approach is notably minimalistic, the color field is raw canvas, which is only offset by two vertical bands. Another interesting element in the painting is the treatment of the zip. Here, the process is opposite to the original zip painted in Onement I (1948), in which the artist painted over a vertical piece of tape. The artist paints in expressive brush strokes around the tape and then pulls the tape down to expose a hard edged zip. The two band structure established in First Station repeats itself in different proportions and variations throughout the rest of the paintings. The progression and cohesion gives the paintings a sense of completion and balance. In the context of the story of Jesus, this alludes to the ultimate revival and rebirth of Christ, and the overall ability to transcend suffering.