Sal Khan, Beth Harris & Steven Zucker discuss representation and abstraction in art; they take a look at Millais’s Ophelia and Newman’s, Vir Heroicus Sublimus.

Works Discussed

John Everett Millais, Ophelia, 1851–52, oil on canvas, 76.2 cm × 111.8 cm (30.0 in × 44.0 in), (Tate Britain, London).

Barnett Newman, Vir Heroicus Sublimus, 1950–51, oil on canvas, 242.3 cm × 541.7 cm (95 3⁄8 in × 213 1⁄4 in), (Museum of Modern Art, New York City).