Newman The Monument, 2026

screenshot of an aeral view of the national mall and lincoln memorial reflecting pool, a long rectangle of algae green with darker blue water around the edges where trump lackey dumped hydrogen peroxide. alleys of trees recede similarly in the distance, with grass and another smaller lake on either side. posted by derek guy, aka dieworkwear on june 16 2026
a painterly screenshot via @dieworkwear

Last night Derek @dieworkwear compared the hydrogen peroxide-filled Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool to a Rothko, and the uneven edges of blue and the center of algae green did feel Rothkovian.

Then @rabihalameddine said it looked more like a Barnett Newman to him, and I couldn’t unsee it. Or ignore it, especially when I knew just the Newman, and just what to do with it:

a barnett newman edition of three vertical blue stripes on a 4 ft by 5 inch sheet of plexiglass, with the wider center stripe a lighter blue than the outside, next to a slightly taller, slightly narrower edition adjusted to the scale of the lincoln memorial reflecting pond, also to be silkscreened on plexiglass, with the central strip a thick green the color of algae as seen in dieworkwear's aerial video from june 2026
[L] Barnett Newman, The Moment, 1966, screenprint on plexiglass, 48 3/4 x 5 in., published by Multiples, Inc. in an edition of 125; [R] Newman The Monument, 2026 screenprint on plexiglass, in the scale of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, 49 1/2 x 4 in., in an edition yet to be determined.
Study 1 for Newman The Monument, 2026, jpg, before changing the dimensions

[Day later update] The more I think about it, and watch the delaminating painting disaster at the Reflecting Pool, I keep coming back to the first version of this study. I had the fill tolerance settings tighter, which left janky spots along the edges of the jpg. At first I thought that was a problem to be fixed, not a prophecy to be fulfilled. And now I wonder if, instead of screenprint on plexi, this work should be made instead by shoddily painting latex on Barnett Newman multiples. I guess this is an open call, if you want to send your Newman The Moment, I’ll be happy to ruin it.