Ad Reinhardt. Collage. 1940

Ad Reinhardt Collage 1940

  • Not on view

Among the recurring characters in Reinhardt’s sharp-witted cartoons is a Cubist painting that talks back to an uncomprehending viewer. “Ha ha, what does this represent?” asks the viewer, pointing at the painting. To which the painting replies angrily, “What do you represent?” Reinhardt embraced the aesthetics of Cubism and European Constructivism. In this collage, he carries forward the pioneering collage work of Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque with an energetic composition of cut and pasted printed paper on board. Reinhardt updates the contained quality of Cubist composition by employing the allover aesthetics of the New York School, expanding his collage out across the surface of the board to its very edges.

Additional text from In The Studio: Postwar Abstract Painting online course, Coursera, 2017
Medium
Cut-and-pasted printed paper on board
Dimensions
15 5/8 x 13 1/4" (39.8 x 33.6 cm)
Credit
Gift of the artist
Object number
458.1967
Copyright
© 2022 Estate of Ad Reinhardt / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Department
Drawings and Prints
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