Series Painting 5 1966

Ronnie Landfield made "Series Painting 5", but when? What does it mean to make a painting that’s part of a series anyway? This piece is a sea of dark color, maybe oil or acrylic, that seems to swallow the light. The texture looks smooth, but with subtle variations, like a cloudy night sky. There’s a depth that pulls you in, but it's also impenetrable. I can imagine Landfield layering the paint, maybe wiping it away, building up this rich surface over time. There's a certain kind of painterly touch that reminds me of Ad Reinhardt. Both artists push abstraction to the edge, exploring the limits of color and form. You know, it makes me think about how paintings can hold so many possibilities, even when they seem to be saying very little. It’s the quietness of it that gets me.