Ad Reinhardt *
(New York 1913–1967)
Abstract painting (Green), 1952, oil on canvas, 91.4 x 61 cm, framed
Provenance:
Marlborough-Gerson Gallery Inc., New York
Private Collection, Switzerland (acquired from the above in 1973)
Sale, Sotheby‘s, London, 6 February 2003, lot 9
Private Collection, San Francisco
Pace Gallery, New York
Private Collection, Germany (acquired from the above in 2010)
Exhibited:
Bottrop, Josef Albers Museum Quadrat, Ad Reinhardt. Letzte Bilder, 2010–2011
Literature:
Heinz Liesbrock, exh. cat., Ad Reinhardt. Letzte Bilder, Bottrop 2010, cat.-no. 83, p. 83 with ill.
Two pale blue fields open up the central axis of Abstract Painting (Green), forming a column of light. Separating them is a dark green field that defines the horizontal, while four equally sized dark blue fields frame the cross on all sides. Seven fields in all – clearly delineated and arranged in strict geometric order.
Ad Reinhardt began his artistic practice in the 1930s. From the outset, he made a point of excluding references to representational reality or to the artist’s imagination.
Between 1950 and 1953, he produced his series of Red Paintings and Blue Paintings, each working within a spectrum of closely related hues. Around the same time, Josef Albers was teaching alongside Reinhardt at Yale University, where he was working on what is perhaps his best-known series, Homage to the Square, investigating the interplay be-tween different fields of colour. Reinhardt’s move towards rigorously geometric composition can also be understood in this context.
Reinhardt’s stated aim was to challenge conventional perceptions of art: his works demand a different way of seeing. The reduction to form and colour creates space, figuratively speaking, to draw viewers into the picture and away from their everyday reality. The matte surface prevents reflections and with them any distraction. Behind it lies an elaborate painting process – one that, paradoxically, Reinhardt did not want to reveal on the surface of his paintings.
Reinhardt brought this artistic ambition to its culmination in the black Abstract Paintings of his late work. Their composition is identical to that of Abstract Painting (Green), except that all seven fields are rendered almost entirely in black, with only subtle additions of colour. Abstract Painting (Green) can be seen as a crucial precursor to the black Abstract Paintings for which Reinhardt would later become world-famous. The composition is already fully realised here: in green, blue and pale blue, what the black paintings allow only to be glimpsed is clearly visible.
A key work in which Reinhardt’s entire late oeuvre is already present in embryo.
Specialist: Joëlle Romba
(New York 1913–1967)
Abstract painting (Green), 1952, oil on canvas, 91.4 x 61 cm, framed
Provenance:
Marlborough-Gerson Gallery Inc., New York
Private Collection, Switzerland (acquired from the above in 1973)
Sale, Sotheby‘s, London, 6 February 2003, lot 9
Private Collection, San Francisco
Pace Gallery, New York
Private Collection, Germany (acquired from the above in 2010)
Exhibited:
Bottrop, Josef Albers Museum Quadrat, Ad Reinhardt. Letzte Bilder, 2010–2011
Literature:
Heinz Liesbrock, exh. cat., Ad Reinhardt. Letzte Bilder, Bottrop 2010, cat.-no. 83, p. 83 with ill.
Two pale blue fields open up the central axis of Abstract Painting (Green), forming a column of light. Separating them is a dark green field that defines the horizontal, while four equally sized dark blue fields frame the cross on all sides. Seven fields in all – clearly delineated and arranged in strict geometric order.
Ad Reinhardt began his artistic practice in the 1930s. From the outset, he made a point of excluding references to representational reality or to the artist’s imagination.
Between 1950 and 1953, he produced his series of Red Paintings and Blue Paintings, each working within a spectrum of closely related hues. Around the same time, Josef Albers was teaching alongside Reinhardt at Yale University, where he was working on what is perhaps his best-known series, Homage to the Square, investigating the interplay be-tween different fields of colour. Reinhardt’s move towards rigorously geometric composition can also be understood in this context.
Reinhardt’s stated aim was to challenge conventional perceptions of art: his works demand a different way of seeing. The reduction to form and colour creates space, figuratively speaking, to draw viewers into the picture and away from their everyday reality. The matte surface prevents reflections and with them any distraction. Behind it lies an elaborate painting process – one that, paradoxically, Reinhardt did not want to reveal on the surface of his paintings.
Reinhardt brought this artistic ambition to its culmination in the black Abstract Paintings of his late work. Their composition is identical to that of Abstract Painting (Green), except that all seven fields are rendered almost entirely in black, with only subtle additions of colour. Abstract Painting (Green) can be seen as a crucial precursor to the black Abstract Paintings for which Reinhardt would later become world-famous. The composition is already fully realised here: in green, blue and pale blue, what the black paintings allow only to be glimpsed is clearly visible.
A key work in which Reinhardt’s entire late oeuvre is already present in embryo.
Specialist: Joëlle Romba
