American, 1913–1967
Black Painting No. 34, 1964
Oil on canvas, 1.530 x 1.526 m
(601/4 x 601/8 in.)
In the 1950's Ad Reinhardt, began limiting the colors in his paintings and then eventually only painted black on canvas. His all black paintings took a lot of work to create. To create them he mixed reds, blues, and other colors with black creating slightly different color tones within the black painting. These color changes could be seen as the viewer looks closely at the painting. Reinhardt created this painting without leaving many brushstrokes. His pictures are static—“timeless” he called them. He insisted they were the ultimate paintings.
Your Task
The statement below is meant to explain this black painting. What do you think it means? Try to figure out it's meaning by reading each sentence and comparing it to the painting.
1. Art is art. Everything else is everything else.
11. Painting as central, frontal, regular, repetitive.
18. Brushwork that brushes out brushwork.
20. The strictest formula for the freest artistic freedom.
21. The easiest routine to the difficulty.
23. The extremely impersonal way for the truly personal.
24. The completest control for the purest spontaneity.
—Ad Reinhardt, from “25 lines of words on art: Statement,”1958
