Ad Reinhardt

Whitney Museum of American Art

 Digitized by the Internet Archive
in 2013

http://archive.org/details/adreinhardOOsims
 Ad Reinhardt
A Concentration of Works from the Permanent Collection

of the Whitney Museum of American Art

Patterson Sims

Associate Curator, Permanent Collection

A joth Anniversary Exhibition

December 10, 1980-February 8, 1981
Ad Reinhardt is one of a series of exhibitions cele-

brating the 50th Anniversary of the Whitney Museum

of American Art. Each exhibition concentrates on the
work of one artist represented in depth in the Perma-
nent Collection of the Museum. The series is spon-
sored by Champion International Corporation. The
exhibitions were organized and the accompanying
publications written by Patterson Sims, Associate
Curator, Permanent Collection.

The author acknowledges with gratitude the generous

assistance of Rita and Anna Reinhardt. Lucy Lippard
made available her unpublished monograph on Ad
Reinhardt. Lippard's text and Barbara Rose's edition
of Reinhardt's writings were significant sources for
the content of this publication, and are gratefully
acknowledged.

Design &: Typography by Howard I. Gralla

Typesetting by The Stinehour Press
Printing by The Meriden Gravure Company
Cover Printed by Acme Printing Company, Inc.

Photographs of all works by Reinhardt in the

Permanent Collection of the Whitney Museum of

American Art are by Geoffrey Clements.

Copyright 1980
by the Whitney Museum of American Art
945 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10021

Cover:
Ad Number 30, 1938
Reinhardt,
Oilon canvas, 40V2X42V2 inches
Promised gift of Rita Reinhardt
Introduction

Ad Reinhardt [9131967 described his birth studied literature, his years at ( olumbia
as taking place nine months after the close of reinforced an early decision to be an artist.

the Armory Shovs in New York, on the eve of From literature, he soon turned to courses in

Europe's entry into World War I, and during art history and aesthetics. Professor Meyer
the year in which "Malevich paints rirst geo- Schapiro, for over five decades a vital link

metric-abstract painting." 1
Reinhardt's between art history and the artists who would
formidable sense of chronology meshed the make it, directed Reinhardt's abundant

personal, the cultural and the political. He was energies into what were then considered
the best-traveled and most art-historically radical campus politics. Reinhardt came by his
informed American painter of his generation. political liberalism easily: both his parents
More than any other artist of his time, were ardent unionists and his father was a

Reinhardt turned to writing to express his labor organizer and lifelong Socialist. His
artistic and moral concerns. His prose became political activities at Columbia were directed
the carrier of the content he felt should best be toward abolishing fraternities and to the

left out of his art. Though his contribution as a production of controversial cartoons on this

painter is predominant, his correlative but, for and other university issues. Taking over from
him, much less significant activity as a lecturer the much more conservative Wouk,
and writer never diminished. Indeed, as his Reinhardt became editor of Jester, the campus
paintings became increasingly reductive, his humor publication. He designed covers in a

prose grew increasingly complex. flattened Cubist style. As Merton later

Implicit in the development of Reinhardt's recalled, Reinhardt's "issues of Jester were

an were impenetrable barricades to descriptive, real magazines. I think that in cover designs
biographical or art-historical exposition. He and layouts he could have given lessons to

believed only in abstract art. He repeatedly some of the art-editors downtown. "-
insisted on art as art alone, and made paintings Reinhardt was subsequently elected to a
that fulfill his assertion. As a result, most national organization of collegiate comics
explanations of Reinhardt's art must perform editors.

variations upon the fugue of his prose. A Though Reinhardt's decision to be an artist
biographical approach to Reinhardt has been was encouraged by his years at Columbia, the
appropriately subordinated, but sketching the university offered little practical instruction.

historical context of his life and work is both After graduating, Reinhardt avoided the Art
possible and informative. Students League and, instead, studied
Reinhardt's individualism was already painting with Karl Anderson and John Martin
evident when he attended Columbia University at the National Academy of Design. He also

between 193 1 and 1935. He was the first took private classes at the American Artists'

member of his family to attend college. He School in 1936 with Francis Criss, who
selected Columbia because it provided a stressed an asymmetrical geometry in his

broadly based liberal education. Most of his depictions of the city, and Carl Holty, whose
associates there were future writers: Robert art flattened and separated the figure into

Gibney, Seymour Freedgood, James Wechsler, complex sweeping shapes of solid color. At
the poets John Berryman and Robert Lax, and Criss' and Holty's small school on Fourteenth
the novelistHerman W'ouk. At Columbia he Street, Reinhardt was one of a small band of
formed with Thomas
his close friendship artists offered alternatives to the dominance
Merton, later a Trappist monk. Though of Social Realism. In 19^-, with the sponsor-
Reinhardt socialized with writers and initiallv ship of Holty, Reinhardt joined the recently
formed American Abstract Artists (AAA), an Reinhardt ran the gamut of commercial and
organization of which Holty was chairman industrial jobs and freelance graphic work.
and which represented almost the entire He was associated with PM newspaper as an
American abstract movement within its fewer artist-reporter from 1942 to 1947. Recogni-
than fifty members. He also affiliated with the tion for his art began in the mid- 1940s. His

Artists' Union and the American Artists' earliest solo shows occurred in 1943 ar>d
Congress. Stuart Davis was associated with 1944. In 1944, his work was first acquired by
the two latter organizations and from this a public collection, A. E. Gallatin's Museum
time on Davis, who was a neighbor of of Living Art; this collection was donated in

Reinhardt's, was a quasi-mentor to the 1946 to the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

younger artist. By becoming a member of Reinhardt joined the Betty Parsons Gallery in

these three organizations, Reinhardt allied 1946, where he remained, unlike so many of
himself with the major avant-garde American his more financially ambitious peers, through-

artistic-political groups of the late 1930s. out his life.

From 1936 to 1 94 1, Reinhardt's financial Reinhardt's age and the artistic affinities of
support came from the Federal Art Project; he his 1940s work have allied him most meaning-
was employed, following the recommenda- fully with the artists of the New York School
tion of his AAA cohort Burgoyne Diller, in the or, as they are alternatively designated, the

Easel Division of the Works Progress Admin- Abstract Expressionists. Apart from Robert
istration (WPA) at $87.60 a month. Motherwell (with whom he edited in 195 1 the

Reinhardt was among the relatively few non- sole issue of Modern Artists in America, an
objective artists in the project. Numerous issue devoted to nascent Abstract Expression-
paintings resulted, several of which are ism), Reinhardt was the most verbally
extant. In the late 1930s, Reinhardt's art proficient and intellectually curious of these

consisted of solid-toned, linear, interlocking, painters. His art matured alongside, and at

geometric forms. He seems to have attained a times resembles, that of Motherwell, William
kind of immediate artistic maturity. His Baziotes, Adolph Gottlieb, Lee Krasner,
circular and rectilinear shapes grew in BarnettNewman, Mark Rothko, Clyfford Still
complexity through the early 1940s as and Bradley Walker Tomlin. Of this group, he
organic and gestural markings gradually was friendliest with Newman and Rothko. But
replaced precise and hard-edged forms. though they evolved together, Reinhardt
Though the foundation of his art was collage, reached a completely contrary conclusion. An
as the decade progressed embellished linear essential dissimilitude of mind prevailed. The
activity seized the paintings and drawings. biomorphism, emotionalism, and the cult of

His work assumed a character related to other individuality that Abstract Expressionists

of the budding Abstract Expressionists. When favored, Reinhardt abhorred. His connections

Barnett Newman organized in 1947 a group with the New York School painters dissolved
exhibition, "The Ideographic Picture," at in the 1950s, when he began to produce single-

Betty Parsons Gallery, he selected for color, geometric paintings.

inclusion himself, Hofmann, Stamos and Around 1949 Reinhardt's line increased in

Reinhardt. With a year's interruption for stature and returned gridded structure to the
military service in 1944-45, throughout the paintings. Curved forms were eliminated in

1940s, Reinhardt's art progressively focused favor of horizontal and vertical brick-like
upon gestural, linear and coloristic strokes of paint. Ragged, sinuous edges were
saturation. purged. By 1952, the solid symmetrical blocks
Between 1 94 1 when he was
, laid off the of color that define late Reinhardt paintings
WPA, and 1947, when he commenced appeared. These simply structured paintings
teaching art history at Brooklyn College, led to Reinhardt's final "black" series of dark
and seemingly impenetrable works. \\ ith com- work by Reinhardt, Number 1 8 of 1 948-49. It

pulsive constancy, he pursued this ultimate was among the rirst of his works acquired by a

form until he died of a heart attack in 196- at major museum and, not counting Gallatin's
the age of fifty-three. purchase, the first by a major New York insti-

The purity and ultimate simplicitv of Rein- tution. It was followed two years later by the

hardt's culminating single-tone variation purchase of the 1953 Number ij.1 his

paintings using red, blue and black tonalities painting was selected from "The New Decade:
are a logical outcome of the technical and j 5 American Painters and Sculptors," the
physical evolution of his art-making. The Whitney Museum's earliest significant

return to the geometric in the early 1950s was recognition of the New York School. Paintings

catalyzed by his new perception of the work of by Baziotes, Brooks, de Kooning, Gottlieb,
Mondrian and his personal contact with Josef Kline, Motherwell, Pollock, Pousette-Dart,

Albers. Reinhardt's identification with the Reinhardt, Stamos and Tomlin were shown.
New York School was challenged by his more Number 1 7 and de Kooning's Woman and
potent role as the precursor of the Minimalist Bicycle were the only works bought from this

and conceptually based art of the 1960s and exhibition, which included several previously
19-os. The physical presence of Reinhardt's acquired New York School paintings. This

late works is pregnant with conceptual impli- 1955 purchase also represented the first sale to

cation. His study of art history and thirst to a museum of one of Reinhardt's quasi-mono-
absorb as many of its images and forms as chromatic paintings.
possible led him to these statements: from all In 195" Reinhardt whimsically formed
the historv of art came a mandate for attentive SPOAF Society for the Protection of Our
Artist Friends (from themselves; after read-

ing the artists' statements in the catalogue of

Ad Reinhardt's association with the Whitney the Museum's "Nature in Abstraction" exhi-
Museum began with his inclusion in the bition. The show and certain of its artists'

Museum's 194" "Annual Exhibition of statements were, in Reinhardt's opinion, a

Contemporary Sculpture, Watercolors and doleful attempt to falsely insert content into
Drawings." Thereafter his work was shown abstraction. Reinhardt, included in the Muse-
regularly in the Museum's annual um's 1962 survey of "Geometric Abstraction
contemporary surveys, with the exception of in America," publicly protested its version of
the years 1961 to 1965; during that period, the history of this sensibility within American
Reinhardt did not participate in group exhibi- art. His feeling softened sufficiently in Decem-
tions. His relationship with the Whitney ber of 1966 to donate Museum Landscape to
Museum, like his dealings with most institu- the Whitney, "for no special reason except the

tions, was not unclouded. Museum Landscape, season to be jolly," as he wrote in his beautiful,

asatireof the Whitney Museum 1950 Annual, thick, black-ink script in an accompanying
3
is polite but potent; it established the tone for letter. Also in 1966, Reinhardt's only multi-
many future differences between the artist and ple, a silkscreen on Plexiglas, was donated to

the Museum. Reinhardt took umbrage at the the Museum by Mrs. Aaron H. Esman. In

representational bias within the democratic 19-4, Susan Morse Hilles, a longtime trustee
pluralism that characterized the Museum's of the Museum, gave Abstract Painting, Blue.
point of view ; as he inscribed at the bottom of In 1976, 1977 and 1979, Rita Reinhardt, the
this elaborate 1950 collage: "Have you ever artist's widow, made a series of gifts of Rein-

seen a cross-section [group exhibition] that hardt's art to the Museum. These gifts six

made any sense? Everything is treated as if it cartoon-collages, six gouaches, an abstract

were the same thing." cut-paper collage, and Number }o have
In 1953, the Museum purchased its first established the Museum as a major repository
of Reinhardt's art. An additional cartoon- of Reinhardt is unique in its capacity to reveal
collage was acquired in 1976 through the through many works on paper the artist's wit
generosity of Mr. and Mrs. B. H. Friedman, and working process, as well as including

Mr. and Mrs. Morton L. Janklow, Mr. and major paintings from all periods of his art.

Mrs. Rudolph Schulhof and the John I. H. This "Concentration" is Reinhardt's first solo

Baur Purchase Fund. In 1979, Mr. and Mrs. show here. His exhibition "Twenty-five Years

Edwin A. Bergman donated funds to acquire of Abstract Painting" at the Betty Parsons
an important c. 1950 gouache study. The Gallery in i960 was organized, in part,

major deficiency in the Museum's representa- because he was not offered a retrospective at
tion of Reinhardt's art was filled in 1980 with the Whitney Museum; there is some justice

the 50th Anniversary Gift by Fred Mueller of that now a small retrospective view of his art

Abstract Painting, Number 33, from the can be organized from the Museum's own
culminating series of black paintings. holdings.

The Whitney Museum's collection of the art

 been part of
To be part of ihinp or not tt be part or having
become ',-tr part from -that part that w&'part of
-{\\\*$s at -they've
-bUinp as they are or not-ti part
?
'
Part of life more -thaw life, fort of an artist is mere -thjn
Everyman In the istrylaytoday part of things lives like
fti artht.
)\rvman. So do I Part of myself is separate from my separate
Selves, fatti-tiny h specialseparate.
Some claim to represent nature, hell on earth /ick society,
inner turmoil, wild btas*ts,a*i thirds asthcy are. May not one side
of we speak up for the side of the'anyete? (Who!; nest by separation).
^

Scparation/mthe past,of palntiny from mils and books, from

architecture ani sculpture, from portry and theatre, from reMyion,
h*sttry,and nature, from decoration, decvmentation,anA description,
was achievement In awareness*
Separation, in history, of fine and libera! arts from lahorani
]pus\"t5S,fr&m -trade skills and entertainment* from professions oF
phasing and selliny, was achievement in freedom.
Dumplny together, m three American fauve decades (social-real-,
Svrreal^abstract-cxpresswnisni) of paintiny u/ith primiiivity,
stiffer\ny, oropaqanda, svbeonseievsness, pleasure, sadism, publicity,
Symbolism, poverty, spleen, practicality, solvency, !ife^lovef hate,faie,
filk, 'instruction, irrationality, action personality anA cmsricuovs
patron izati on ,ms achievement in romandny.
Painting is special, separate, a matter of meditation 2nd
awtempiaticn, for vne, no physical action or soda! sport. "As much
consciousness as possible? Clarity, completeness, ovintessenee, auuet.
ho i)vUe,nc schmvt*,m schmerz,no fauve schutirmereu Perfection,
passivtntss, consonance, censummateness. So palpHrtions,no qestievlation,
no antes juene. Spirituality, serenity, absoluteness, coherence. Ho
avtcmat\sm,no accident, no anxiety, no catharsis, no chance, htachment,
disinterestedness, thouyht fulness, transcendence. So hvmbvyyiny, no
button-holing, no exploitation, no mixiny things up. fl ] 2C W of
loftiness, no hvmourkssness.

hen)york,l9&

Reinhardt's statement for the catalogue of the

exhibition"The New Decade: 35 American
and Sculptors," Whitney Museum of
Painters
American Art, New York, 1955
Ad Reinhardt (19 13-1967)

1913 1944-45
Born Adolph Frederick Reinhardt, December Serves in United States Navy as a

24, Buffalo, New York, the eldest of two sons. photographer.

Father, Russian immigrant; mother, German
1946
immigrant. In America, parents associate
First exhibition with the Betty Parsons Gallery,
themselves with the Lithuanian community.
New York (subsequent exhibitions there in
When he is two years old, family moves to
1947, 1948, 1949, 1951, 1952, 1953, 1955,
New York City.
1956, 1959, i960, 1965).
I93I-35
1947
Attends Columbia University.
Becomes associate professor, Brooklyn
1936-39 College (appointed full professor in 1963).
Studies at the National Academy of Design
1948
with Karl Anderson and John Martin and at
Helps found the Artists' Club, a discussion
the American Artists' School with Francis
group of New York School artists.
Crissand Carl Holty (1936). Joins Artists'

Union (1936), American Abstract Artists 1949

(1937) and the American Artists' Congress Travels to Virgin Islands.
(i939).
I950-53
1936-41
Visiting professor and lecturer during summer
Associated with Federal Art Project; works in
session at the California School of Fine Arts,
Works Progress Administration (WPA), Easel
San Francisco (1950), and University of
Division.
Wyoming ( 1 95 1 ), where he is given one-man
1938 show. Painter-in-residence at Yale University
First group exhibition, American Abstract (1952-53).
Artists annual exhibition.
1952
1942-47 First trip to Europe.
Works as artist-reporter for PM newspaper.
1953
1943 On sabbatical, travels in Europe. Marries Rita

First one-man show, Teachers College Gallery, Ziprowski, a painter.

Columbia University. Next one-man show the
1954
following year at the Artists' Gallery, New
Only child born, daughter, Anna.
York.
1958
1943-52
Travels to Europe, Japan, India, Iran and
Takes numerous classes in art history at the
Egypt.
Institute of Fine Arts, New York University
(paid for by theG.I. Education Bill, 1945-46). 1961
Later makes special note of study with Alfred Travels to Turkey, Syria and Jordan. Begins
Salmony, an Orientalist, and Guido teaching and lecturing at Hunter College, New
Schoenberger, an expert on Mathias York; continues until 1967.
Griinewald.
Ad Reinhardt, c. 1965

1962 Retrospective of paintings, The Jewish

Travels to Mexico. Museum, New York.

1964 1967
Three concurrent one-man gallery exhibitions Receives Guggenheim fellowship; travels to
in New York; Betty Parsons Gallery (black Italy. Dies of a heart attack, August 30, in New
paintings), Graham Gallery (red paintings), York.
Stable Gallery (black paintings).

1966
Second visit to the Virgin Islands.
 Number 30, 1938
Oil on canvas, 40 V2 x 42V2 inches
Promised gift of Rita Reinhardt
(on cover in color)

Collage, 1938
Paper collage on paper, 15 x 11 inches
Gift of Rita Reinhardt 76.5 1
Number 30

Reinhardt rilled his commentary on his earl) favored by the influential Stuart Davis. I he
years with notations of his artistic achieve- forms impinge on each other and lock together
ments: making copies of the "funnies" at two, at acute angles. Within the now -familiar

winning a watercolor flower painting contest vocabulary of late 1930s American geometric
at m\. and receh ing an aw ard for pencil non-objectivity, Reinhardt forged a distinc-

portraits ot famous personalities of the d.w at tively vivid, spatially flat and asymmetrically
thirteen. Yet his career as an artist did not balanced style.

begin until i9^~. 4 It followed tour years of Just as Reinhardt's work of the mid- to late

studying art history and aesthetics at 1 940s was often indistinguishable from that of
Columbia University and a year of more the Abstract Expressionists, so his composi-

practical instruction at Teachers College, the tions of the late 1930s were profoundly inter-

National Academy of Design and with the connected with the work of other members of
painters Francis Criss and Carl Holty. His the American Abstract Artists. Paintings by
earliestknown works display an unusual Josef Albers, Ilya Bolotowsky, Werner
authority. He had delayed making art he Drewes, A. E. Gallatin, Gertrude Greene, Fritz

would choose to keep until he knew exactly Glarner and Esphyr Slobodkina, all shown in

what he wanted to paint, and thus deferred the early AAA annual exhibitions, closely parallel
tortuous trials most young artists undergo in Reinhardt's art of this period. As George L. K.
their search for subjects and styles. Morris explained their work, "anyone who
In 1938, at twenty-four, after experimenting knows America can see the tone and color-
with carefully composed and cut colored-paper contrasts are quite native, that the cumulative
studies like Collage, Reinhardt made in rhythmic organization resounds from an
Number 30 the most assured and zestful of his accent which could only have originated in

first series of paintings. Its startlingly varied America alone." 5 Lacking the advocacy of
and bright blocks and circles of color on museums, in the absence of any private
neutral gray move beyond the simplified patronage and without dealers to assist them,
figurative references and Miro-esque shapes the small band of American abstract artists

found in the work of Carl Holty , his most turned to each other for encouragement and
important teacher. They liberate themselves formed their own audience.
from the skeletal space coordinates of reality

1 1
 f
Ill'
4i^ mini

Untitled (N.Y. World's Fair), 1939

Gouache on mat board, 8V2 x n inches
50th Anniversary Gift of
Rita Reinhardt 79.55

Untitled (N.Y. World's Fair), c. 1939

Gouache on mat board, 83 A x n V2 inches
50th Anniversary Gift of
Rita Reinhardt 79.56
Untitled, 1938 & Untitled (N.Y. World's Fair), 1939

Ilya Bolotowsky has spoken or the basic alter- objective composition that Reinhardt

natives for American non-representational preferred appears. It is reminiscent of Davis'

artists in the late 1 930s as a choice between earlier Eggbeater series, yet evinces an abstrac-
Miro and Mondrian. 6 Bolotowsky resolutely tion Davis would not utilize again for another
opted for the straight-edged austerity of the decade. Writing about Davis in 1945, Rein-
Dutchman over the organic shapes of the hardt praised the artist, while lamenting Davis'
Spaniard. Reinhardt left himself open to the need for recognizable images to give his

possibilities of both. In the same year that paintings " 'extra' meaning and 'ease' their

Reinhardt precisely composed the rectilinear communication." 7 Capable of both geometric

and flat Collage, he made the organic and and organic styles, Reinhardt always insisted
spatial Untitled. Primarily attracted to on non-objectivity.
rectilinear and geometric composition, in the

1938 Untitled he used curving shapes, overlaid

forms and linear elements suggesting spatial
depth, which anticipated his explorations of
the 1940s.

Another example of Reinhardt's range and

intellectualism occurs in a pair of gouache
studies based upon the 1939 New York
World's Fair. Didacticism is their major
component. Executed in the style of Stuart
Davis, they were a means to privately poke fun
at the issue of abstraction versus representa-

tion. Like Robert Rauschenberg's erased

de Kooning drawing and Frank Stella's 1962- Untitled, 1938
63 painting Jasper's Dilemma, Reinhardt's Gouache on mat board, 10x8 inches
gouaches offer a sincere homage in the form of Gift of Rita Reinhardt 79.54
a brilliant insult. For a man as committed to
pure abstraction as Reinhardt, the more repre-
sentational gouache is uncharacteristic to the
point of parody. Davis, a studio neighbor in
the late 1930s, was Reinhardt's most durable
role model, not only for the independence of
his art, but for the sardonic style and
aggressive intelligence of his writings. In the
mode of the master American abstractionist of
the late 1930s, details of the Glass Incorpo-

rated building, the Star Pylon, and the Life

Savers Parachute Tower are mixed with other

of the Fair's moderne ingredients. Line, color
and mass are explored within a complex but
Stuart Davis
recognizable architectural vocabulary. Then,
New York Waterfront, 1938
in the second gouache with the subtraction Oilon canvas, 22 x 30V4 inches
of the lines, the filling in of color areas and the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo,
simplification of forms the variety of non- New York; Room of Contemporary Art Fund

13
Works of the 1940s

"1943 Wonders what Adolph Gottlieb and his early work necessitated a period of more
Mark Rothko are up to when they announce: complex self-discovery. He later recalled the

'There is no such thing as good painting about 1940s as his "decadent decade." 9 His collages
nothing.' became increasingly intricate and entangled.
1943 Continues making paintings about Ragged edges and twisting lines of color began
nothing" to appear. Complexity and diffusion of shapes
-Ad Reinhardt, ''Chronology." 8 into lines introduced a more arbitrary and per-
sonal note. Though his works from 1941 to

For much of the 1940s, Reinhardt reacted 1949 exhibit a superficial kinship with the
strongly against the logic and geometry of his graphic pictorial structure used by Krasner,
work of the late 1930s. It was as if the surety of Pollock, David Smith, Rothko, Mark Tobey

Untitled, 1946
Gouache on paper, 1
3
3 /s
x ij^/s inches
Gift of Rita Reinhardt 79.57

'4
and Tomlin, Reinhardt always disclaimed studied with the ( )rientalist Alfred Salmony at

their belief in emotional and spiritual content. the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University.

As his means became gestural and idiosyncratic, In 1947 he inaugurated a series of Asiatic art

his stated intentions continued to be purely history courses at Brooklyn College. Eastern

formal. He arrived at abstraction without principles of timelessness, the significance 1 >t

necessarily passing through the way stations of continuity, repetition and tradition, and the

Surrealism and personal expressionism. Rein- recurrence of mathematical configuration

hardt was essentially opposed to narrowing were introduced into his aesthetic system,

the gap between his life and his art. finding their fullest manifestation in the next

His drawings and paintings of the 1 940s decade.

expressed a personal style of mark-making Reinhardt's progression in this decade may
that derived more from his study of Oriental be charted through the Museum's works. In

art than from a desire to pictorialize emotions Untitled, 1946, incendiary particles of color

or psychological states. Starting in 1943, ne purple, red and blue are framed in brilliant

Untitled, c. 1947
Gouache on mat board, 16 x 2.0 Vs inches
50th Anniversary Gift of
Rita Reinhardt 79.58
green. Reinhardr used a device, made famous weave of black paintstrokes forms a dense bar-
later by Hans Hofmann, of playing off organic rier between cross-shaped surface marks and
shapes against rectangles of color. As Thomas the white void beyond. Delicately hatched

B. Hess wrote later, Reinhardt here "simply inked grids in a 1949 gouache are a foil for its

lets loose his skyrockets while ardently deny- more watery labyrinth crude antecedents for
10
ing the existence of a 'bang.' As his art the brick-like motifs of his next series of

evolved its calligraphic form, his use of color works. The forms of both gouaches are
became more muted. The web of lines and cushioned with soft borders.
shape areas was more rigorously integrated Clues to Reinhardt's own objectives in these
with a solidly toned background color. This works were provided in the little brochure that
diminishing of brightness and softening of accompanied his 1948 Betty Parsons Gallery
structure is apparent in the later drawings in exhibition. He wrote twenty short descriptive
gouache. In a gouache study of around 1947, a titles and a general statement. These titles read

Untitled, 1949
Gouache and India ink on paper,
22. V4 x 3o 3/4 inches

50th Anniversary Gift of

Rita Reinhardt 79.59

16
like sly suggestions tor a pompous rev lew of themselves against their brushy background.
the exhibition, yet offer insight amidst their As 1 iess observed, "it represents the Keinhardt

mockery. Among these brief descriptions one waterfall at its best. Without beginning or end,
finds: "bits of information," "non-iconic like a Chinese scroll, it offers a minutely deco-

signs," "space-markings," "dialectic rated surface covered without a particular plan

spectacle," "sensuous surface remark" and or desire to epitomize any particular feeling,
"color-comment." Formal content is definitely but simply to paint." 11
In Number 18, 1948-
stressed; emotional implications are ignored. 49, forms shoot off the edge of the picture
Number 18, 1948-49, is a summation of the plane. The containment of much of his former
dichotomy of line and space which activates so art both its geometric and organic versions
much of his art in the 1940s. In this painting, has been pierced, and the all-over surface of

vertical lines are contrasted with a horizontal his later paintings makes an appearance in a

format, vague totem-like shapes comport lushly tangled form.

Number 18, 1948-49

Oil on canvas, 40 x 60 inches
Purchase 53.13

'"
Untitled, c. 1950

The new decade is denoted in Reinhardt's art previously employed in calligraphic configura-
by the introduction of simplified, rectilinear, tions were broken into sections and magnified.
wide-brushed strokes of one color on top of The strokes became not marks on but the
another. In his parody analysis of his develop- structure of the picture. The personal note
ment, Reinhardt called this third phase of his hinted at in so much of his art of the 1 940s
art "archaic color-brick-brushstroke impres- diminished. His pictures had less incident. At
" 12
sionism. The strokes of paint that he had first, strong contrasts of the brick-motif color

Untitled, c. 1950
Gouache on paper, 2.2. V2 x 31 inches
(orientation undesignated)
50th Anniversary Gift of
Mr. and Mrs. Edwin A. Bergman 79.53

IS
and the ground tonality were apparent. In Museum's earlier stud) . This Reinhardt

time, their values became closer: the brick painting bears an uncanny resemblance to
strokes became an all-over motif. The casual- Bradley Walker Tomlin's Number /, 1952..

ness seen in the Museum's c. 1950 gouache Both artists composed their paintings of paint

was replaced by a systematic interweaving of marks; they pursued the activity of making in-

brick shapes. Edges were straightened and creasingly simple marks with no emotional or
tightened. The horizontal placement of paint- intellectual connotations. These brick-like
strokes often contrasted with the verticality of marks were ordered until they grew into solid

the canvas shape. Number 1, 1952, illustrates blocks of variation upon one color.
these extensions of the ideas implicit in the

ru

fc1 *4 y -A.

Number 1, 1952 Bradley Walker Tomlin

Oilon canvas, dimensions unknown Number r, 1952

Whereabouts unknown Oil on canvas, ^9 x 46 inches

Gift of Susan Morse Hilles 73.12

19
 '^
~*>"'-S
HOW TO LOOK AT A SPIRAL
in invesfigofion info fundomenfo's by Ad Remhardt

@A pointing more intelligible and communicative mutl involve o serious considerofion o' 'he spiral The spiral is o demo
r one-buf whoi eirocfly does it represent'* What has it m*?ont m the post 7 How con artists use it for the future"*

The ancient spiral was a picture of the immortal sou/, a palace of

intestines, a dwelling place of a demon It was a Greek scroll-decora
and a Chinese tiger-dragon o sign of clouds and thunder and a ch_
against dork forces of evil The earth shot of! from the sun in a logarithmic ^''*"!--*
spiral and o seventeenth century physicist insisted a spiral be engraved \
]
on his tomb as the symbol of 'perpetual renascence '

m
The spiral
cube"
is "a rolling or a curve on .tself infinitely
Its inward driv b sucks and retreats and closes (escapism^ and ,fs
outward unfolding spe ws and opens and discovers (hope) A m.crocosmic
and a coning of the
,
jfe A -
jf^
S*7'
j /j V
^wtLfiT^ ^^fS^^
V
V
J^g),
r*^<^
"A
'

I
^i
jffe/ JTlP
sign, a symbol for Hi jry and Evolution, a psycho-physico/ structure
'-M^ " ^* V
-^^ C ^ *
The spiral today is a nebula and a novel, a snake, a scribble, and a stair-
case, a whirling-planet and a bed-spring, an economic cycle and an ele-
phant, an endless ecstasy and a rope-loop.

The spiral is a sun and a somersault, a sea-snail she/f and a cyclone, a

cork-screw and a crazy-castle a protective-womb and a pin-wheel, a curse
.

in a cartoon-strip and a dentist's drilling t

( Like \naih see the people go

I

/ Along the pavement, row on r

I And each one on his shoulder beoi
\ His coiling shell of" petty
\ The spiral of his own off.

X. f Hammond

Wm^ff The spiral is o moustache and o mountain and a molehill, a rams-horn,

an oclopus-tenacle, a conducfing-coil and a swivel-choir, a waltz, a tattoo,
and a curlique-cow-tick on a Sfeig or Steinberg dome

The spiral is a bacteria and a traffic-ramp, a merry-go-round and o book-

binding, a beauty-mark and a restless blind alley, a rhythm, a concept,
a phonograph record ond a crypt.

How to Look at a Spiral, 1946

Collage of ink and paper, 13 x 10V4 inches
Gift of Rita Reinhardt 76.49
Cartoon-Collages

Reinhardt's cartoon-collages were up-to- While Reinhardt's often arcane art-world

the-minute bulletins on art, culture and references were toned down as his PM series
perception. Gadfly of the art world, tireless progressed, his three centerfold cartoons for
pursuer and categorizer of information, the annual issues of the publication trans/ for-

frequenter and righteously combative partici- mation are unadulterated art-world satires.

pant at all symposia, Reinhardt found in the Under the direction of Harry Holtzman, an
cartoon-collage a perfect medium. Actual associate of Reinhardt's in the American Ab-
drawing was subordinated to cut-and-pasted stract Artists group, each issue of this serious

illustrations animated by brief commentaries. journal was lightened by a Reinhardt cartoon-

All varieties of printed sources, particularly collage. Museum Landscape appeared in 1950
nineteenth-century books with engravings, and commented upon the "abstract" affiliations

were cannibalized. of the participants and non-participants in that

From the late 1930s through the early year's Whitney Museum Annual Exhibition. A
1940s, Reinhardt had supported himself by- review of the show was headlined "Abstraction
assisting industrial designers among others, Crowned at Whitney Annual" and Reinhardt
Russel Wright and as an illustrator (his con- parodied the "abstraction" of Charles Burch-
troversial drawing of a figure with a visible field, Philip Evergood, Ben Shahn, John Sloan
navel, made for Ruth Benedict's Races of Man- and others. Museum Racing Form was
kind, helped resolve this now-dated issue). published in the next year's issue. It successfully-

This training and experience were put to ser- used horse racing as a paradigm of the art
vice in his first cartoon-illustration, produced world. To trans /formation 3, Reinhardt
for PM, a short-lived, leftist-oriented, New contributed Art of Life of Art, a page of outra-
York afternoon newspaper. For a little under a geous jokes and word plays. Amidst its cornu-
year, beginning in late January 1 946, one of copia of puns, it featured such Joycean
Reinhardt's cartoons appeared even. few- -

combinations of artists' names as "well I'll be a

weeks in FM's Sunday magazine section. They shahn of a bouche!" and "tanguy varga
were information-filled parodies on the "How- murch!"
to" "How to Look at an Artist," "How-
series: The final forum for Reinhardt's pictorial

to Look at Space," "How to Look at Things reportage was Art Sews magazine, where the
through a Wire-Glass," "How to Look at lively and impassioned editorship of Thomas
More than Meets the Eye," and eighteen other B. Hess was just beginning. Hess had a great
multi-image and text sheets. The general pur- affinity- for Reinhardt's intelligence and caustic
pose of the series was to satirize "Bauhaus, humor, and between 1954 and 1966 seven
surrealist and expressionist pretentions to articles by Reinhardt appeared in the

meaning." 13 The final cartoon in the PM magazine. Reinhardt's Our Favorites, his first

group, "How to Look at a Spiral," never ran. 14 Art Sews cartoon, appeared in March 1952. It

The management seems to have realized that was a response to a Wildenstein Gallery-

Reinhardt was mocking them too; he was exhibition for the benefit of the Whitney
fired. How to Look at a Spiral and A Page of Museum's purchase fund. The major critics for

Jokes, a grab bag of humor in the vein of the the seven leading art publications each chose
"How to" series, survive and are in the ten favorite paintings. Reinhardt was not one
Museum's collection only because they never of the artists selected and Ben Shahn's Vacant
got to press; the other PM cartoons exist as Lot was the most frequently requested work.
photo reproductions from surviving copies of As in Reinhardt's other Art Sews cartoons, art
the newspaper. dealers, critics and museum personnel were
given nearly equal time with artists. The system business. Its key unlocked the mysteries of the
was unmasked; everyone was acerbically art world, revealing, for instance, in a north-

categorized. Poundingfathersfoily day was east quadrant of the mandala, that the
published in Art News two years later, in April Whitney Museum was a "Fish-Fry Valhalla."

1954. Again a barrage of puns crowded the Its complexity like the simplicity of the
page. Sections of it were devoted to imaginary "black" painting he started this same year is

athletic contests pitting, in boxing, Rothko comprehensible only after intensive and con-
against Still and Diller against Albers. In team- centrated viewing: attentive vision is rewarded
wrestling, the Kootz Gallery artists, "Kootzen- with enlightenment. With the "black" paintings
jammer Kids," were matched against the came a cessation of the cartoon-collage aspect

Sidney Janis stable, the "Janisjaguars." of Reinhardt's art, though in 1961 a severely
A Portend of the Artist as a Yhung Mandala pruned version of his 1946 PM cartoon "How
was printed in May 1956 in Art News. The to Look at Modern Art in America" appeared
mandala's four basic sections dealt with art in in Art News.
relation to government, nature, education and
f r*rh>Mi- Jkx-v "' <" .rr...Mi lml

4 > L r A PORTEND OF THE

2^

A Portend of the Artist as a Yhung Mandala,

1956
Collage of ink and paper, 20 V4 x 13 V2 inches
Gift of Rita Reinhardt 76.45

*3
Abstract Painting, Blue, 1953
Oil on canvas, 50 x 28 inches
Gift of Susan Morse Hilles 74.22
Abstract Painting, Blue & Number 17

"Bur it may be said thar geometry- is to the color-brick paintings developed, spaces be-
plastic arts what grammar is to the art of the tween the paintstrokes were carefully rilled in

writer" Apollinaire. 15
and the edges of the color areas sharpened. The
paint was applied as evenly as possible, and the
As early as 1 948, Reinhardt implemented the color values narrowed. The interwoven brick

idea of closely toned all-over geometric paint- shapes often formed a nearly solid tonality. In

ings, but he did not completely adopt this 1953 Reinhardt had been, as he wrote two
approach until after 1953. As his series of years later, "interested in painting as a 'field' of

Number 17, 1953

Oil and tempera on canvas,
3/4 x 77V4
77 inches
Purchase 55.36

*5
 1 " 16
color, as a 'total image. That year he made Reinhardt pursued the Greek cross motif. The
"a series of canvases with closely related dark squares in Albers' paintings have a symmetry
grays, a number of paintings in reds, and one akin to Reinhardt's use of the five-square
or two in blue-greens." 17 Logic began to rule Greek cross, yet, as Bruce Glaser pointed out

Reinhardt's art once again; balanced, asym- concerning a typical Albers painting, it is "not
metrical composition, still seen in Number iy, [symmetrical] if you turn it on its side." 21

was joined by the rigid symmetricality apparent Turned on its side, Abstract Painting, Blue
in Abstract Painting, Blue. retains symmetry. Its central Greek cross is

While moving toward his ultimate series of contained by three-square bars at top and bot-
black paintings, Reinhardt insisted of Number tom. Of this shape and the color black, one

i j that it had "no concern especially with recalls that Reinhardt listed Georgia O'Keeffe's
light, form or space divisions or relationships, Black Cross, New Mexico in his chronology as
18
nor with color contrasts. His perceptions of one of the seminal works of the twentieth
his own work aside, the thrust of the final pe- century. The individual squares of color can

riod of Reinhardt's work was toward building function alone or merge into bars. In muted,
upon, yet remaining distinct from, his dual natural, changing light, Reinhardt's squares

sources, Mondrian and Albers. A recent publi- flow together, alternately horizontally and ver-
cation on Reinhardt established at length the tically. The quality of color in Abstract Paint-

fascinating parallels between the development ing, Blue suggests the tones of the Caribbean
of Mondrian and of Reinhardt. Yet the author waters off the Virgin Islands, which Reinhardt,
acknowledges from the outset the tenuousness awaiting a divorce from his first wife, had
of their proven direct connections. 19 As Rein- visited in 1949. In undated notes, he describes
hardt asserted, "I was never really part of any blue as the "color of villains, ghosts and fiends
post-Mondrian group, though I knew him. . . . . . . hope, heaven, sky." 22
My preoccupation with symmetry and color- Number 17 is one of Reinhardt's very last

lessness is the great change. . . . This change large-scale, asymmetrically composed paint-

isn't mine entirely . . . Albers has been symmet- ings. Contrary to Reinhardt's declarations,
rical for a long time." 20 meticulous concern was obviously taken in its

Exactly at the time he was formulating a spatial relationships and coloristic balance.

new direction in his work, Reinhardt was in But the arrangement of its small squares and
direct contact with Albers. In the winter and larger squares and rectangles is not program-
spring of 1952 and 1953, Reinhardt taught at matic. In order to eliminate such subjective
Yale University. The position had been offered arrangements and to systematize his art, Rein-

to him by Albers, who had commenced in hardt soon elected to limit his paintings to a
1950 his eight-year direction of Yale's art de- single composition and color. In his black
partment. Albers had begun his "Homage to paintings, he pursued an art of subtle mutability

the Square" series in the summer of 1949. He based upon the negation of as many variables

pursued his systematic format as vigorously as as possible.

16
Abstract Painting, Number 33

"A square (neutral, shapeless) canvas, rive feet publics, non-expressionistic, not tor oneself." 23

w ide, rive feet high, as high as a man, as wide as As he undoubtedly would have predicted,
a man's outstretched arms (not large, not main of Reinhardt's characterizations have
small, sizeless), trisected (no composition), one been invalidated: the black paintings have be-
horizontal form negating one vertical form come immensely desired icons of post-u ar
(formless, no top, no bottom, directionless), American art and the subject of numerous
three (more or less) dark (lightless) no-con- interpretations. They quickly achieved a wide,
trasting (colorless) colors, brushwork brushed if at first confounded and unconvinced, audi-
out to remove brushwork, a matte, flat, free- ence. Reinhardt noted that in 1955 he was
hand painted surface (glossless, textureless, listed in Fortune magazine as "one of the top
non-linear, no hard edge, no soft edge) which twelve investments in 'art' " and added that the
does not reflect its surroundings a pure, ab- next year he had to borrow money to pay for
stract, non-objective, timeless, spaceless, one of the first of the many trips he took during
changeless, relationless, disinterested painting the 1950s and 1960s. 26
an object that is self-conscious (no uncon- In pushing toward an extreme position and
sciousness) ideal, transcendent, aware of no narrowing the terms of his art, Reinhardt
thing but art (absolutely no anti-art)" seemed to have opened these paintings to wide
Ad Reinhardt. 23 explication and speculation. In 1963, Hilton
Kramer perceived these final works as "the
Around 19^4 asymmetry, irregular composi- most genuinely nihilistic paintings I know ... a

tions and bright (i.e., red and blue) tonalities cry of despair disguised as a Utopian mani-
were purged from Reinhardt's art. These festo." 27 Fairfield Porter wrote in 1964 that
changes coincided with three events in his life: "Reinhardt carrying non-objectivity to the
his teaching duties at Yale University in 1952 logical extreme of disembodied estheticism,
53; his marriage in 1953 to Rita Ziprowski, a plays in New York School painting the role
young painter; and the birth of their only child, that Seurat played in Impressionism. He tries

a daughter, the following year. This second to validate it by reducing it to an ideal." 28 In

marriage and a child set up a new rhythm in his 19-5, Barbara Rose suggested they were
life. By 1956 Reinhardt painted only the sym- "icons without iconography." 29
metric, so-called "black" paintings that The manifold political, spiritual, artistic and
concluded his art. Other American artists obsessive implications of Reinhardt's black
most notably Barnett Newman, Robert paintings have been separately analyzed by-

Rauschenberg, Leon Polk Smith and Clyfford Barbara Rose and, at length, by Lucy Lippard.
Still had previously made essentially black Discussion might best be summarized in the

paintings. But no one before had set out so terms chosen by an artist who admired Rein-
earnestly to create, in the artist's own words, hardt's work deeply enough to acquire one of
"the last painting which anyone can make." 24 the series for himself: Frank Stella said of these
The discussion that has surrounded these works, "If you don't know what they're about
works has been controversial and is, character- you don't know what painting is about." 30
istically, dominated by Reinhardt's writings. Since all explanations are at odds with the
He had represented the series as "unmanipu- works' intentions, Reinhardt's notes suggest
lated and unmanipulatable, useless, unmarket- that these paintings might best be defined by
able, irreducible, unphotographable, un- what they are not: "anti-anti-art, non-non-art,
reproducible, inexplicable icons. A non-enter- non-expressionist, non-imagist, non-surrealist,
tainment, not for art commerce or mass-art non-pnmitivist, non-fauvist, non-futurist,

*7
non-figurative, non-objective, non-subjective, tural, non-mural, non-decorative, non-colorist,
non-action, non-romantic, non-visionary, non-ready-made, non-spontaneous, non-
non-imaginative, non-mythical, non-organic, irrational, non-sensational, non-impulsive,

non-vitalist, non-violent, non-vulgar, non- non-physical, non-technical, non-

naturalist, non-supernaturalist, anti-accident, asymmetrical, non-gesticulating, non-
anti-brute-junk-pop-folk art, non-local, non- gesturing, anti-happening, non-mannerist,

regionalist, non-nationalist, non-representa- non-plastic, non-relational, non-venal, non-

tional, non-poetic, non-dramatic, non- calligraphic." 31 Calling into question much

entertainment, non-naive, non-barbaric, non- previous art and providing a sturdy platform
nomadic, non-rural, non-eccentric, non-racist, for subsequent work, Reinhardt's greatest
non-commercial, non-linear, non- achievement resides in the unrelenting,

diagrammatic, non-tachist, non-informal, meditative and quiescent surfaces of these final

non-irregular, non-sculptural, non-architec- paintings.

IX
Abstract Painting, Number 33, 1963
Oil on canvas, 60 x 60 inches
50th Anniversary Gift of Fred Mueller 80.33

19
Notes

i. Ad Reinhardt, "Chronology," in Art-as- 13. Ibid., p. 15.

Art: The Selected Writings of Ad Reinhardt,
ed. Barbara Rose (New York: The Viking 14. Around 1947, Reinhardt gave a lecture on
Press, Inc., 1975), p. 4. "The Spiral Form in Modern Architecture" at
the Institute of Fine Arts, New York Univer-
2. Thomas Merton, The Seven Storey sity; see Margit Rowell, Ad Reinhardt and

Mountain (New York: Harcourt, Brace &C Color, exhibition catalogue (New York: The
World, Inc., 1948), p. 154. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, 1980), p.
21.

3. Ad Reinhardt, letter to Lloyd Goodrich,

director of the Whitney Museum, December 15. Quoted in Fairfield Porter, Art in Its Own
22, 1966, in Artists' Files, Whitney Museum of Terms: Selected Criticism, 1935-1975, ed.
American Art, New York. Rackstraw Downes (New York: Taplinger
Publishing Company, 1979), p. 66.

4. Reinhardt twice gave this date as the year he

began to paint seriously. See Ad Reinhardt, re- 16. Reinhardt, response to questionnaire, June
sponse to questionnaire, June 1955, in Artists' 1955-
Files, Whitney Museum of American Art, New
York; and George L. K. Morris, American 17. Ibid.
Abstract Artists, exhibition catalogue (New
York: American Abstract Artists, 1939), 18. Ibid.
unpaginated.
19. Rowell, Ad Reinhardt and Color,
5. Morris, American Abstract Artists, pp. 11-22.
unpaginated.
20. Reinhardt, Art-as-Art, p. 21.
6. Ilya Bolotowsky, interview by Louise
Averill Svendsen, in llya Bolotowsky (New 21. Ibid.
York: The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum,
1974), p. 20. 22. Quoted in Rowell, Ad Reinhardt and
Color, p. 24.
7. Ad Reinhardt, review of Stuart Davis exhi-
bition at the Museum of Modern Art, New 23. Reinhardt, Art-as-Art, pp. 82-83.
Masses, November 27, 1945; reprinted in
Stuart Davis, ed. Diane Kelder (New York: 24. Ibid., p. 13.
Praeger Publishers, Inc., 1971), p. 196.
25. Ibid., p. 83.
8. Reinhardt, Art-as-Art, p. 6.

26. Ibid., p. 7.

9. Ad Reinhardt, quoted in Thomas B. Hess,

The Art Comics and Satires of Ad Reinhardt 27. Hilton Kramer, "Art," The Nation,
(Diisseldorf, West Germany: Stadtische June 22, 1963, p. 534.
Kunsthalle Diisseldorf; Rome: Marlborough
Galleria d'Arte, 1975), p. 19. 28. Porter, Art in Its Own Terms, p. 106.

10. Thomas B. Hess, Abstract Painting: Back- 29. Reinhardt, Art-as-Art, p. 82.
ground and American Phase (New York: The
Viking Press, Inc., 195 1), p. 145. 30. Frank Stella, in "A Tribute to Ad Rein-
hardt," Arts Canada, October 1967, Artscan
11. Ibid. section, p. 2.

12. Reinhardt, Art-as-Art, p. 10. 31. Reinhardt, Art-as-Art, p. 102.

Selected Bibliography

Ad Reinhardt: Twenty-five Years of Abstract Lippard, Lucy R. Ad Reinhardt. Paintings

Painting (exhibition catalogue). New York: (exhibition catalogue). New York: The Jewish
Betty Parsons Gallery, i960. Museum, 1966.

Ad Reinhardt (exhibition catalogue). Diissel- McConathy, Dale. Ad Reinhardt: A Selection

dorf, West Germany: Stadtische Kunsthalle from 1937 to 195 2 (exhibition catalogue).
Diisseldorf, 19-2. New York: Marlborough Gallery Inc., 1974.

Ad Reinhardt (exhibition catalogue). Eind- Reinhardt, Ad. Art-as-Art: The Selected Writ-
hoven, Holland: Van Abbemuseum, 1972. ings of Ad Reinhardt. Edited by Barbara Rose.
New York: The Viking Press, Inc., 1975.
Arnason, H. H. and Barbara Rose. Ad
Reinhardt: Black Paintings, 1951-1967 Ritchie, Andrew Carnduff. Abstract Painting
(exhibition catalogue). New York: and Sculpture in America. New York: The
Marlborough Gallery Inc., 1970. Museum of Modern Art, 195 1.

Ashton, Dore. The New York School: A Cul- Rowell, Margit. Ad Reinhardt and Color
tural Reckoning. New York: The Viking Press, (exhibition catalogue). New York: The
Inc., 1973. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, 1980.

Flagg, Nancy. "Reinhardt Revisiting." Art Sandler, Irving. The Triumph of American
International, 22 (February 1978), pp. 54-57. Painting: A History of Abstract Expression-
ism. New York: Praeger Publishers, Inc.,

Hess, Thomas B. Abstract Painting: Back- 1970.

ground and American Phase. New York: The
Viking Press, Inc., 195 1. Schjeldahl, Peter. Ad Reinhardt: Art Comics
and Satires (portfolio). New York: Truman
. The Art Comics and Satires of Ad Gallery, 1976.
Reinhardt. Diisseldorf, West Germany: Stad-
tische Kunsthalle Diisseldorf; Rome: Marl-
borough Galleria d'Arte, 1975.

Hobbs, Robert Carleton and Gail Levin. Ab-

The Formative Years
stract Expressionism:
(exhibition catalogue). New York: Whitney
Museum of American Art; Utica, New York:
Herbert F.Johnson Museum of Art, 1978.
Works in the Permanent Collection

Collage, 1938 Untitled, c. 1950

Paper collage on paper, 15X11 inches Gouache on paper, 22V2 x 31 inches
Gift of Rita Reinhardt 76.15 (orientation undesignated)
50th Anniversary Gift of
Number 30, 1938 Mr. and Mrs. Edwin A. Bergman 79.53
Oil on canvas, 40 V2 x 42V2 inches
Promised gift of Rita Reinhardt Museum Racing Form, 195
Collage of ink and paper, 8 Vs x 21 V2 inches
Untitled, 1938 Gift of Rita Reinhardt 76.47
Gouache on mat board, 10x8 inches
Gift of Rita Reinhardt 79.54 Art of Life of Art, 1952
Collage of ink and paper, 10 x 24 V2 inches
Untitled (N.Y. World's Fair), 1939 Gift of Rita Reinhardt 76.48
Gouache on mat board, 8 V2 x n inches
50th Anniversary Gift of Our Favorites, 1952
Rita Reinhardt 79.55 Collage of ink and paper, i4 3/4 x 21 inches
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. B. H. Friedman, Mr. and
Untitled (N.Y. World's Fair), c. 1939 Mrs. Morton L. Janklow, Mr. and Mrs.
Gouache on mat board, 83 A x 11V2 inches Rudolph Schulhof and the John I. H. Baur
50th Anniversary Gift of Purchase Fund 76.52
Rita Reinhardt 79.56
Abstract Painting, Blue, 1953
How to Look at a Spiral, 946 1 Oil on canvas, 50 x 28 inches
Collage of ink and paper, 13 x 10V4 inches Gift of Susan Morse Hilles 74.22
Gift of Rita Reinhardt 76.49
Number 17, 1953
A Page of Jokes, 1946 Oil and tempera on canvas,
Collage of ink and paper, 9 3/4 x 16V2 inches 77
3/4 x 77V4 inches
Gift of Rita Reinhardt 76.50 Purchase 55.36

Untitled, 1946 Foundingfathersfollyday, 1954

Gouache on paper, i3 3/s x i7 3 /s inches Collage of ink and paper, 1 2 x 20 inches
Gift of Rita Reinhardt 79.57 Gift of Rita Reinhardt 76.46

Untitled, c. 1947 A Portend of the Artist as a Yhung Mandala,

Gouache on mat board, 16 x 20 Vs inches 1956
50th Anniversary Gift of Collage of ink and paper, 20 lM x 13 V2 inches
Rita Reinhardt 79.58 Gift of Rita Reinhardt ^6.45

Number 18, 1948-49 Abstract Painting, Number ^}, 1963

Oil on canvas, 40 x 60 inches Oil on canvas, 60 x 60 inches
Purchase 53.13 50th Anniversary Gift of Fred Mueller 80.33

Untitled, 1949 Abstract Print, 1965

Gouache and India ink on paper, Silkscreen on Plexiglas, 12X12 inches
22V4 x 3o 3 /4 inches Gift of Mrs. Aaron H. Esman 66.94b
50th Anniversary Gift of
Rita Reinhardt 79.59

Museum Landscape, 1950

Collage of ink and paper, 9 V2 x iVfi

Gift of the artist 66.141

 CONCENTRATIONS
A Series of 50th Anniversary Exhibitions
Sponsored by Champion International Corporation

MAURICE B. PRENDERGAST
January 9 -March 2, 1980

GASTON LACHAISE
March 5 -April 27, 1980

JOHN SLOAN
April 3 June 22,1980

CHARLES BURCHFIELD
June 2 j -August 17, 1980

STUART DAVIS
August 20 October 12, 1980

CHARLES SHEELER
October 15 December 7,1980

AD REINHARDT
December 10, 1980 -February 1, 19 81

ALEXANDER CALDER
February 4 -March 29, 198