Red Painting (Primary Title)
Ad Reinhardt, American, 1913 - 1967 (Artist)
“There is no such thing as a good painting about nothing.” —Adolph Gottlieb and Mark Rothko
“There is no such thing as a good painting about something.” —Ad Reinhardt
As Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning became recognized for their painterly, action-oriented style of abstraction, Ad Reinhardt was developing his own much more reductive style. The difference between these approaches suggests the wide range of Abstract painting at midcentury.
Red Painting is one of the first in which Reinhardt made geometry and color the focus, eliminating all traces of brushwork. Emotion and narrative have no place in this work; its subject is chromatic relationships. Reinhardt’s spare, nearly monochromatic works paved the way for both the Color-Field painters later in the decade and the Minimalists of the 1960s.
Abstract Expressionism, Royal Academy of Arts, London, September 26, 2016 – January 2, 2017; Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao, Spain, February 3 – June 4, 2017
Ad Reinhardt, Josef Albers Museum, Bottrop, Germany, September 9, 2010 – January 9, 2011
Abstract Expressionism: A World Elsewhere, Haunch of Venison, New York, NY, September 12 – November 21, 2008
Ad Reinhardt, Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY, May 30 – September 2, 1991; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA, October 13, 1991 – January 5, 1992
Abstract Expressionism: The Critical Developments, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY, September 19 – November 29, 1987
Amerikanische Malerei 1930-1980, Haus der Kunst, Munich, Germany, November 14, 1981 – January 1982
Tracking the Marvelous, Grey Art Gallery, New York University, New York, NY, April 27 – May 30, 1981
Ad Reinhardt and Color, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY, January 10 – March 9, 1980
Ad Reinhardt: A Selection from 1937 to 1952, Marlborough Gallery, New York, NY, March 1974
Ad Reinhardt, Stadtische Kunsthalle, Dusseldorf, Germany, September 15 – October 15, 1972; Stedelijk Van Abbe Museum, Eindhoven, The Netherlands, December 15, 1972 – January 28, 1973; Kunsthaus, Zurich, February 11 – March 18, 1973; Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais, Paris; Museum des 20 Jahrhunderts, Vienna, Austria, July 18 – August 28, 1973
New York Painting and Sculpture 1940-1970, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY, October 1969 – February 1970
The Responsive Eye, Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY, February 23 – April 25, 1965; City Art Museum of St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, May 20 – June 20, 1965; Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, WA, July 15 – August 23, 1965; Pasadena Art Museum, Pasadena, CA, September 25 – November 7, 1965; Baltimore Museum of Art, December 14, 1965 – January 23, 1966
Ad Reinhardt, Graham Gallery, New York, NY, March 1965
The New Decade: 35 American Painters and Sculptors, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY, May 1955 - May 1956; San Francisco Museum of Art, San Francisco, CA, October 6 – November 6, 1955; Los Angeles Art Gallery, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, November 20, 1955 – January 7, 1956; Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, Colorado Springs, CO, February 9 – March 20, 1956; City Museum of St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, April 15 - May 15, 1956
Ad Reinhardt, Betty Parsons Gallery, New York, NY, November – December 1953
[1] Lot 19, November 9, 1979. See Sale catalogue, Contemporary Art (New York: Christie, Manson & Woods, 1979): 44.
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