Untitled

Thomas Downing worked in the late 1950s with artists of the Washington Color Field School, who abandoned figural representation to explore the expressive power of color. They applied paint across large canvases to determine how different colors relate to one another and to emphasize the canvas's flat surface. Downing favored simple geometric forms, usually circles, which he carefully arranged to form precise patterns. In Untitled, black, white, and muted primary colors cover the entire canvas. The circles are layered on top of one another, creating an undulating effect that makes the dots appear to be in motion. Like many color field artists, Downing worked on unprimed canvas, a technique that allowed his pigments to soak into the weave, resulting in works with a more saturated, vivid appearance.