In the late 1950s, Kenneth Noland, together with Morris Louis, founded the Washington Color School, a movement that called for a deep engagement with colour and surface, and pioneered new directions in abstraction. Both artists visited Helen Frankenthaler’s studio, where they were introduced to the technique of working with unprimed and untreated canvas. Notably, the art critic Clement Greenberg invited Noland and Louis to her studio in Frankenthaler’s absence, encouraging them to explore this innovative way of painting. They each adapted Frankenthaler’s Soak-Stain technique in their own strikingly different ways: Louis poured the paint onto the canvas, while Noland continued to use traditional tools such as brushes, spatulas, and rollers.
In the early 1960s, Noland began his Chevron series, exploring the interplay of colour and geometric form through triangular bands of colour. This series became an ideal vehicle for him to further investigate the relationship between shape and colour. Noland repeatedly returned to the V-shape, finding new expressions within the same motif. Works from this series, created in the 1980s, reveal Noland’s particular interest in the surface of the canvas. One can clearly discern the gesture with which he applied the paint in varying thicknesses, layering it thickly in some areas and more thinly in others. Despite the strong gestural application, the geometric format of the work helps to temper the intensity of the gesture.
Kenneth Noland first met the art critic Clement Greenberg in the summer of 1950 at Black Mountain College, and Noland trusted Greenberg’s critical guidance throughout his career. Greenberg brought together artists who were pushing Abstract Expressionism forward —not only on an intellectual level, but also through the direct presence of their artworks. In his living room, alongside works by Helen Frankenthaler, Morris Louis, Jules Olitski, and Wolfgang Hollegha, hung a work by Kenneth Noland —a symmetrical Chevron painting as in the Reinhard Ernst Collection.
Kenneth Noland (1924–2010)
Florida, 1983
Currently exhibited: Yes (Yes (Wolfgang Hollegha. Don't think, look!))
Material: Acrylic paint on canvas
Size: 216 x 176.8 cm
Inv-Nr.: B_462
Image rights: VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn
Keywords:
Acquisition: Reinhard Ernst Collection, Christie’s New York, 2011
New York, Whitney Museum of American Art,
