(Edited highlights of the panel's review)

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ADAM MARS-JONES:
In a strange sort of way, the paintings resist the meanings. This theory that the zip represents a very attenuated human form, I didn't buy that. I didn't feel there was mysticism or politics in it. To me, it was a struggle for a stylistic identity, starting off with lines and squiggles from perhaps clay, but ultimately his big struggle didn't seem to me with history but with Rothko on one side and Mondrian on the other. These are very much opposed and his attempt to find a middle ground didn't really work in the long term for me. There were a couple of paintings with a triangular format which I thought was a breakthrough for him. One of them allowed a lot more open depth and I thought he almost had diagonals. And the other one, the black one opposite, they were in their way triumphant paintings, because he had found a way to be himself and to acknowledge others.

NATASHA WALTER:
When I started the exhibition in the first couple of rooms, I felt very moved by what was in front of me. It was the particular fact that, when he found that trademark zip, that line that broke the canvas, and you just looked to the side of the canvas and they started in 1946, and they tend to be called things like The Cry, The Break. For me, it did feel it is a response to the Holocaust. I don't think you can see it in any other way. I found that very moving. Newman himself said that, in the wake of the Second World War, there was no point trying to do any kind of narrative or figurative art. I did find that moving, the way that he found his style then and it was a style of absolute muteness and starkness and the inability to show form. So that was very moving. But then I just felt as though, he stayed with it so much, that form, and then I think tried to load on to it much more meaning than in the end it could take. I don't think he ever became a bad artist, but because he is such a repetitive artist, I do think a lot of the talk about the spirituality that he wanted one to find, and the emotion, it left me cold.

MARK KERMODE:
There is a very thin line between brilliance and stupidity. You have to get over the fact. Partly there is the shock of seeing so many similar paintings which are so repetitive, almost starting to pastiche themselves and understanding the possible anger it causes in some viewers. It is true that in the past these paintings have been vandalised, and people have asked in the past how can you take it seriously. In a way, there was something almost demented about the constant zips, if you go into room 5 there is a painting with a line, if you go into room 6 there is a statue, the next room there is a wall with a black line against a black background. On an abstract, emotional level, I found it exciting, uplifting and enjoyable. But partly because I thought there was something of a front about it...

This transcript was produced from the teletext subtitles that are generated live for Newsnight. It has been checked against the programme as broadcast, however Newsnight can accept no responsibility for any factual inaccuracies. We will be happy to correct serious errors.