Untitled

Ad Reinhardt, Untitled, 1940, oil on fiberboard, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Patricia and Phillip Frost, 1986.92.75
Copied Ad Reinhardt, Untitled, 1940, oil on fiberboard, 46 x 24 in. (116.8 x 61.0 cm.), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Patricia and Phillip Frost, 1986.92.75

Artwork Details

Title
Untitled
Artist
Date
1940
Location
Not on view
Dimensions
46 x 24 in. (116.8 x 61.0 cm.)
Credit Line
Gift of Patricia and Phillip Frost
Mediums
Mediums Description
oil on fiberboard
Classifications
Subjects
  • Abstract — geometric
Object Number
1986.92.75
Linked Open Data
https://edan.si.edu/saam/id/object/1986.92.75

Artwork Description

Untitled is a jazzy kaleidoscope of colored rectangles that resembles a collage whose elements are painted rather than pasted. Reds and pinks placed beside yellows and greens produce optical effects that deny the flatness of the canvas, and small patches of brushy paint are reminders that the hand of an artist is at work. The lively colors and syncopated rhythms owe a debt to Reinhardt’s close friend and mentor Stuart Davis.


Modern Masters: Midcentury Abstraction from the Smithsonian American Art Museum, 2008

Luce Center Label

In the 1940s, Ad Reinhardt experimented with collage, cutting up newspapers, magazines, and books to create images that were “spontaneous and accidental” (“Reinhardt,” Arts and Architecture, 1947). Many of his paintings from that time show the same layered quality as his collages, and in Untitled the hard, jagged edges evoke cut and ripped pieces of paper. These thin, colored rectangles resemble confetti, scattered over the image as if flickering and swirling through the air.