Untitled 1938

This untitled painting, made by Ad Reinhardt, is a playground of shapes and colors on a modestly sized canvas. You can see it as a process of building up; each rectangle, square, or line feels deliberately placed, like a puzzle Reinhardt is figuring out as he goes along. Up close, you really get the sense of the paint itself. It’s not thick and gloppy, but rather smooth and even, almost like he’s staining the canvas. The edges of the shapes are sharp and clean, but there's this curious transparency with which he’s applied the colors. See how they layer up and slightly bleed into one another? I love the pop of the yellow in the lower center – a sunbeam cutting through a complex urban grid. It anchors the whole composition. Reinhardt’s commitment to abstraction reminds me a bit of Mondrian, but with a warmer, more playful spirit. He seems to relish the pure pleasure of putting colors next to each other, inviting us to get lost in the sheer joy of seeing.