- Ad ReinhardtOur PickBy Yves-Alain Bois
- Ad ReinhardtBy Michael Corris
- Ad Reinhardt: Last PaintingsBy Heinz Liesbrock, Ad Reinhardt
Important Art by Ad Reinhardt
Study for a Painting (1938)
This early composition by Ad Reinhardt exhibits the artist's profound interest and understanding of the Cubist art of Pablo Picasso and George Braque. The palette is typical of the style and is comprised of four colors essential for a Cubist painting: black, white, brown, and gray. The abstract shapes are dynamically arranged on the flat surface where the biomorphic curves intermingle with hard edges and straight lines. This small gouache presents Reinhardt as a talented young artist with a gift for absorption of the most relevant styles of painting of the time.
Untitled (1938)
Painted in the same year as the Cubist gouache, this canvas presents quite a stark contrast with Reinhardt's earlier artistic pursuits. Here he is obviously quoting Stuart Davis, the American artist who was a key influence on young Reinhardt. The booming palette employed by the artist has turned this arrangement of rectangular shapes into a feast of color - hot pink, orange, yellow, and red comprise a luminous symphony that inevitably engages the viewer. Later in his life Reinhardt abandoned such bright pigments. This example yet again testifies to the amazing versatility possessed by the young artist in terms of adopting and adapting various styles of modernist painting.
Abstract Painting, Red (1952)
This is one of the paintings belonging to the Red Series. Here the artist immersed himself completely into the exploration of the color red, one of the most expressive among the primary colors. This composition is abstraction par excellence; the squares are arrayed into a rigid pattern with the variations of red hues defining its strict geometry. The artist himself maintained throughout his life that these paintings were completely free of narrative. One cannot help but wonder, however, whether a list of references could be decoded in this canvas due to its expressive palette, impressive size (9'x3.5'), and the almost totemic outline of the squares.
Influences and Connections

- Piet Mondrian
- Kazimir Malevich
- Stuart Davis
- Josef Albers
- Francis Criss
- Meyer Schapiro
- Thomas Merton
- Abstract Expressionism
- Minimalism
- Conceptual Art
- Hard-edge Painting
- Monochrome Painting