Ad Reinhardt, Abstract
Painting, 1963, Oil Painting, Museum of Modern Art, NYC.
60 x
60" (152.4 x 152.4 cm)
After a lot of careful
deliberation, I selected one of
Reinhardt's blacks as the subject matter for this essay. I chose the one from
1963 roughly at the later part of the 1954 – 67 period when he did his Monochromes
and moved more and more towards shades of black. However, as with Reinhardt’s other blacks, longer
viewing reveals that this is not an uniform black. The canvas is divided into a
three-by-three grid of squares – with a reddish tone in the corner squares, a
greenish horizontal bar, and a bluish in between. Like his other monochromes,
this one has a very matte finish, no trace of a gloss, and absolute absence of
any gestures – a very ‘fragile’ painting that displays his mastery over the
medium and years perfecting his technique, at stark contrast with some of the
‘Action’ painters of the period and, as a corollary, a complete absence of
‘ego’, probably an influence of Zen Buddhism that he so passionately believed
in.
In addition to his technical mastery, there are
several things that appeal to me about Reinhardt, starting
with the fact that amongst the NY post war abstract expressionists, Ad
Reinhardt is possibly the only one whose first and only love was Abstracts. The
purity of his form only grew over time, starting with his extremely engaging
abstracts, to his monochromes. ultimately culminating in the ‘Blacks’ for the
extended period of 1954-1967. Though I
liked his Abstracts, and loved his Monochromes, something in his ‘Blacks’
touched and calmed my restless Soul.
Reinhardt’s
‘Blacks’ demand attention – the casual observer will just pass over without
understanding the depth of the painting, no degree of photographic trick will
allow the viewer from truly experiencing the work from behind the lens, and the
only way the viewer can experience the painting is by investing time and mind
to the creation. In other words, the viewer is as much a part of the experience
as the painting itself, and has to spend some considerable time to be able to
discern the mastery, craft and shades in the work. Though this is true for all
his monochromes, this is particularly true of his ‘Blacks’, and the one above
is a perfect example of his craft. "Everything is on the move,” Reinhardt
himself declared. “Art should be still.” And to me, his ‘Blacks’ symbolize the
ultimate 'silence', the last frontier of ‘Still’ painting.
