In addition to being a painter, Reinhardt was an incisive critic and art historian. As an undergrad in the 1930s, he began his studies at Columbia University, New York, under Meyer Schapiro, and continued them at New York University’s Institute of Fine Arts from 1946 through the time he worked on this picture. By the late 1940s, he had removed all figural references from his work in favor of more rigidly geometric forms.
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Inscription: Signed and dated (lower right): Reinhardt 1950; signed and titled (on verso): REINHARDT (No.7) 30 1/2 x 40 1/2
the artist, New York (1950–d. 1967); his widow, Rita Reinhardt, New York (1967–at least 1970; sold through Pace Gallery, New York, to Geldzahler); Henry Geldzahler, New York, by 1972–76; his gift to MMA)
New York. Betty Parsons Gallery. "Ad Reinhardt: Recent Oil Paintings," June 4–23, 1951, no catalogue.
Jewish Museum, New York. "Ad Reinhardt: Paintings," November 23, 1966–January 15, 1967, no. 55.
Düsseldorf. Städtische Kunsthalle. "Ad Reinhardt," September 15–October 15, 1972, no. 29 (lent by Henry Geldzahler, New York City).
Eindhoven, The Netherlands. Van Abbemuseum. "Ad Reinhardt," December 15, 1972–January 28, 1973, no. 29.
Kunsthaus Zürich. "Ad Reinhardt," February 11—March 18, 1973, no. 29.
Paris. Galeries nationales du Grand Palais. "Ad Reinhardt," May 22–July 2, 1973, no. 29.
Vienna. Museum des 20.Jahrhunderts. "Ad Reinhardt," July–August 1973, no. 29.
New York. Marlborough Gallery. "Ad Reinhardt: A Selection from 1937 to 1952," March 2–23, 1974, no. 33 (lent by Henry Geldzahler, New York).
New York. Davis & Long Company. "Brooklyn College Art Department: Past and Present, 1942–1977," September 13–October 8, 1977, unnumbered cat. (p. 82).
Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels. "La Peinture Américaine au 20e Siècle de la Collection du Metropolitan Museum of Art," June 28–August 23, 1978, no. 25 (as "Peinture Abstraite-Gris").
Reno. Sierra Nevada Museum of Art. "The New York School, 1940–1960: The First Generation of Abstract Expressionism," February 3–March 4, 1979, pl. 9.
New York. Hunter College Art Gallery. "Artists at Hunter, 1950–1965: William Baziotes, Fritz Bultman, Helen Frankenthaler, Richard Lippold, Robert Motherwell, Ray Parker, Ad Reinhardt, Tony Smith, George Sugarman," March 28–April 27, 1984, unnumbered cat.
Museum of Modern Art, New York. "Ad Reinhardt," May 30–September 2, 1991, unnumbered cat. (p. 54).
Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. "Ad Reinhardt," October 13, 1991–January 5, 1992, unnumbered cat.
Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo. "Founders and Heirs of the New York School," January 25–March 16, 1997, no. 53.
Sendai. Miyagi Museum of Art. "Founders and Heirs of the New York School," April 5–May 25, 1997, no. 53.
Museum of Modern Art, Ibaraki. "Founders and Heirs of the New York School," June 28–August 3, 1997, no. 53.
New York. PaceWildenstein. "Mondrian Reinhardt: Influences and Affinity," October 24–December 13, 1997, no. 10.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art [The Met Breuer]. "Kerry James Marshall Selects: Works from The Metropolitan Museum of Art," October 25, 2016–January 29, 2017, no catalogue.
Madrid. Fundación Juan March. "Ad Reinhardt: "Art is Art and Everything Else is Everything Else"," October 15, 2021–January 16, 2022, no. 27.
Ad Reinhardt. Ad Reinhardt: Twenty Five Years of Abstract Painting. New York, 1960, unpaginated, ill.
Martin James. "Today's Artists: Reinhardt." Portfolio & Art News Annual no. 3 (1960), ill. p. 59, as "Gray Painting".
Irving Sandler. "Reinhardt: The Purist Blacklash." Artforum 5 (December 1966), ill. p. 43, as "Abstract Painting".
Helen A. Harrison inLa Peinture Américaine au 20e Siècle de la Collection du Metropolitan Museum of Art. Exh. cat., Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels. Brussels, 1978, unpaginated, no. 25, ill., reprints Ref. Harrison 1977.
Margit Rowell. Ad Reinhardt and Color. Exh. cat., Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. New York, 1980, ill. p. 20.
Lucy R. Lippard. Ad Reinhardt. New York, 1981, p. 82, colorpl. 12.
Stephen Polcari. Abstract Expressionism and the Modern Experience. Cambridge, 1991, p. 341, fig. 278.
Helen Westgeest. Zen in the Fifties: Interaction in Art Between East and West. Exh. cat., Cobra Museum voor Moderne Kunst, Amstelveen. Zwolle, 1996, pp. 70–71, fig. 44, discusses the possible influence of Rollin Cramptons's gray monochrome paintings of the late 1940s on this work.
Norman Lewis (American, New York 1909–1979 New York)
1978
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