Abstract Painting: Blue 1953

Curator: We’re now standing in front of Ad Reinhardt’s “Abstract Painting: Blue” from 1953, housed here at the Whitney. Editor: It’s almost aggressively serene. Initially, it seems like a uniform field of blue, but the longer I look, the more subtle variations emerge. There’s a quiet tension in this chromatic compression. Curator: Reinhardt’s work engages directly with questions of spirituality and politics prevalent in postwar America. We can consider this blue monochrome, with its muted cross shape, as both a secular icon and a social critique. The uniformity alludes to the homogenizing forces within society, whilst hinting at deeper truths lurking below surface appearances. Editor: True, it challenges us. There's an insistent flatness. Reinhardt avoids perspectival tricks, denying entry points, creating this…objecthood. I wonder if the limited palette forces the viewer to confront the very properties of paint and canvas as much as its socio-political commentary. Curator: Precisely. Reinhardt was deeply aware of the formal properties and experimented extensively with color theory and geometric arrangements to heighten the intellectual and spiritual experience of encountering abstract art. Yet his theoretical texts railed against capitalist co-option of art, thus linking it all back to class struggle. Editor: Do you see a link here with Yves Klein and his monochromes? Is it about the "void", then? Curator: There’s an overlap in their approaches, yes. Though unlike Klein, Reinhardt's project involved pushing back against institutional frameworks that dictate what qualifies as “good art”, emphasizing its transformative social and political potential through stark reduction. I wonder, given its presence here at the Whitney today, would Reinhardt see it as a co-option or subversion? Editor: Good point. I still wrestle with how such a seemingly minimal painting can carry such weight. It is, as you indicate, heavy with theory and societal critique, while visually presenting an ocean of color. It teeters delightfully on an artistic knife edge. Curator: I agree completely. Reinhardt pushes boundaries on multiple levels, causing us to interrogate how abstraction is itself deeply embedded within socio-historical struggles. Editor: A fascinating glimpse into the poetics of monochrome, even now.