While best known for his paintings, Newman also made some eight sculptures. Here II was the first produced entirely at a foundry and has often been understood as a three-dimensional manifestation of Newman's characteristic "zips," the distinctive vertical bands used in his paintings. Sometimes interpreted as a representation of the Crucifixion, the sculpture was Newman’s attempt to render vertical forms, which appear to rise from – rather than recede into – the floor. The tapered elements at the foot of each "zip," as well as the concealed support for the base, lend a sense of weightlessness to an otherwise immense steel structure.