Kenneth Noland , 1924-2010
Enter, 1969

Enter, 1969

Artist's name: Kenneth Noland , 1924-2010
Item name: Untitled, 1969
Technique: Acrylic on canvas
Measurements: 25X366 cm
Signed: Signed, dated and titled on the reverse.
Estimate: $65000 - 80000

The Kenneth Noland Foundation inventory number: F2-N0334.

Remarks: "I wanted to have color be the origin of the painting. I was trying to neutralize the layout, the shape, the composition. . . . I wanted to make color the generating force." (Kenneth Noland, Washington Post, 1977) An American breakthrough artist, and one of the most important of his generation. The artist's thoughts, feelings and aspirations of the craft of painting and the color in it, contribute to our understanding of his work as a whole, and in particular, "The Stripes" series (1967-70) and the painting "Untitled, 1969". Since, Kenneth Noland's "The Stripes" are the height of his creation, refining his artistic development, side by side with the story of the American art of the 60's. Similar to most of the paintings in the series, the above painting is a monumental artwork in which stripes of color and sub-tones stretch to infinity. The human eye's natural inclination is to scan from side to side, however, by stretching the canvas to an infinite width, Noland's horizontal stripes enable us to look at a colorful surface without any disturbance. As a result, the continuity of the color is sharpened on the expanse of the form. Unlike abstract artists of his time, who used stripes in their creation, Noland's horizontal stripes succeed where others have failed; They create an obscure enigmatic presence, overpowered by the color which stands as the painting's main theme. For good reason, Noland stood at the head of the group of artists called "The Washington's Color School" – a sub-movement of the American artistic movement known as the "Color Field" (of its known artists are Mark Rothko and Bernett Newman). Indeed, in the words of Hilton Kramer, a critic for the New York Times: "The fate of abstract art in America in the 1960s and 70's can scarcely be understood without some knowledge of his [Noland's] work."

About The Artist:

Kenneth Noland (1924, North Carolina – 2010, Maine) was a Color Field American painter who helped establish the Washington Color School movement.

Noland studied art at the experimental Black Mountain College in North Carolina, known for its interdisciplinary approach to art education, and whose faculty included notables like Willem de Kooning and John Cage. A visit to the New York studio of Helen Frankenthaler, along with Morris Louis and Clement Greenberg, influenced his Targets (or Circles) paintings (c. late 1950s-60s), his breakthrough works, abandoning the Abstract Expressionist style in which he painted until that time. In 1964, he was included in the exhibition Post-Painterly Abstraction curated by Clement Greenberg, at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, which helped to firmly establish Color Field painting as an important new movement. In the late 1960s, Noland's approach grew even more reductive, using rectangular canvases and horizontal lines in the Stripes series (1967-70). The Mysteries series of paintings (c. 1999-2002) in his late career was in many respects a return to his beginnings as a formalist abstractionist of the late 1950s. He spent his late life working in his studio in Maine.

Noland created abstractions comprised of pure colors, shapes, and lines, and, seeking to remove the artist, painted by staining the canvas with color, instead using brushstrokes, while leaving bare canvas as a contrast. He pioneered the shaped canvas and his style helped to pave the way for the Minimalist style and for the Neo Geo movement.