Barnett Newman’s Horizon Light is one of only four extant works in which the artist experimented with horizontal bands. In 1950, the then-untitled painting debuted in a show installed by Mark Rothko at Betty Parsons Gallery in New York City. Rothko apparently insisted that the painting be oriented vertically, perhaps to align with other similar works in the exhibition.

Five years later, in the painting’s second public showing, Newman asserted that the canvas should be installed horizontally as he intended. At some point in the ensuing years, he provided additional safeguards to ensure its proper hanging: he titled the work Horizon Light and signed the canvas along the horizontal green band so that its orientation would be unmistakable.