Ad Reinhardt. Abstract Painting. 1960-61

Ad Reinhardt Abstract Painting 1960-61

  • Not on view

At first glance this painting presents a flat black surface. But longer viewing reveals more than one shade of black and an underlying geometric structure. Reinhardt has divided the canvas into a three-by-three grid of squares. The black in each corner square has a reddish tone; the shape

between them formed by the center squares is bluish-black in its vertical bar and greenish-black in its horizontal bar. Reinhardt tried to produce what he described as "a pure, abstract, non-objective, timeless, spaceless, changeless, relationless, disinterested painting—an object that is self-conscious (no unconsciousness), ideal, transcendent, aware of no thing but art."

Gallery label from 2007.
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
60 x 60" (152.4 x 152.4 cm)
Credit
Purchase (by exchange)
Object number
570.1963
Copyright
© 2023 Estate of Ad Reinhardt / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Department
Painting and Sculpture

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