Ad Reinhardt

Infobox Artist
bgcolour = #6495ED
name = Ad Reinhardt


imagesize =
caption = Ad Reinhardt painting
birthname = "Fredrick Adolph Reinhardt"
birthdate = birth date |1913|12|24|
location = Buffalo, New York
deathdate = death date and age |1967|8|30|1913|12|24|
deathplace =
nationality = American
field = Abstract painting
training =
movement = Abstract Expressionism
works =
patrons =
influenced by =
influenced = Monochrome painting, Minimal Art, Conceptual art
awards =

Adolph Dietrich Friedrich Reinhardt ("Ad" Reinhardt) (December 24, 1913–August 30, 1967) was an Abstract expressionist painter, a writer, and a pioneer of conceptual and minimal art. He was also a critic of abstract expressionism.

Background

Reinhardt's earliest exhibited paintings avoided representation, but show a steady progression away from objects and external reference. His work progressed from compositions of geometrical shapes in the 40s to works in different shades of the same color (all red, all blue, all white) in the 50s. Reinhardt is best known for his so-called "black" paintings of the 1960s, which appear at first glance to be simply canvases painted black but are actually composed of black and nearly black shades. Among many other suggestions, these paintings ask if there can be such a thing as an absolute, even in black, which some viewers may not consider a color at all.

Reinhardt was born in Buffalo, New York, and studied art history at Columbia University, where he was a close friend of Robert Lax and Thomas Merton. It is interesting and instructive to see how the three developed similar concepts of simplicity in different directions. Reinhardt went on to study painting with Carl Holty and Francis Criss at the American Artists School, then at the National Academy of Design under Karl Anderson. From 1936, he worked for the WPA Federal Art Project, and he soon became a member of the American Abstract Artists group.

Having completed his studies at the New York University Institute of Fine Arts, Reinhardt became a teacher at Brooklyn College and later at the California School of Fine Arts in San Francisco, the University of Wyoming, Yale University and Hunter College, New York.

His writing includes interesting comments on his own work and that of his contemporaries. His concise wit, sharp focus, and abstraction make them interesting reading even for those who have not seen his paintings. Like his paintings, his writing remains controversial decades after its composition.

Writing

"Art as Art", edited by Barbara Rose, University of California Press, 1991.

Graphics

Prior to his employment on PM where he produced several thousand cartoons and illustrations he did a prodigious amount of other commericial art work and typographical design for magazines and book publishers. He illustrated the highly influential pamplet "Races of Mankind" (1943) and a childrens book "A Good Man and His Good Wife".

Recent Exhibitions

*The Guggenheim Museum has shown Reinhardt's Black Painting as part of their Imageless exhibition, open until September 14, 2008.
*The New York Academy of Sciences recently did a Podcast featuring information about the restoration work being done to the Black Painting, with commentary from the Guggenheim's Chief Conservator Carol Stringari. That Podcast can be listened to [http://www.nyas.org/snc/podcastdetail.asp?id=1850 here] .

References

* Marika Herskovic, [http://www.worldcatlibraries.org/oclc/50253062&tab=holdings "American Abstract Expressionism of the 1950s An Illustrated Survey,"] (New York School Press, 2003.) ISBN 0-9677994-1-4
* Marika Herskovic, [http://www.worldcatlibraries.org/oclc/50666793&tab=holdings "New York School Abstract Expressionists Artists Choice by Artists,"] (New York School Press, 2000.) ISBN 0-9677994-0-6
* Busch, Julia M. (1974) [http://www.worldcatlibraries.org/wcpa/ow/4ed0b0bd878eaf2a.html "A Decade of Sculpture: the New Media in the 1960s"] , The Art Alliance Press ( [http://www.aupresses.com/ Associated University Presses] ), ISBN 0-87982-007-1
*Müller-Yao, Marguerite Hui: "Der Einfluß der Kunst der chinesischen Kalligraphie auf die westliche informelle Malerei", Diss. Bonn, Köln 1985. ISBN 3-88375-051-4
*Müller-Yao, Marguerite: "Informelle Malerei und chinesische Kalligrafie’’, in: ’’Informel, Begegnung und Wandel’’, (hrsg von Heinz Althöfer, Schriftenreihe des Museums am Ostwall; Bd. 2), Dortmund 2002, ISBN 3-611-01062-6

External links

* [http://www.guggenheimcollection.org/site/artist_bio_133A.html Ad Reinhardt bio at Guggenheim Museum site]
* [http://www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?criteria=O%3AAD%3AE%3A4856&page_number=1&template_id=6&sort_order=1 Art Collection at MOMA site]
* [http://www.designobserver.com/archives/025376.html#more Ad Reinhardt, Graphic Designer]
* [http://www.silversteingallery.com/Pop_Ad.html Ad Reinhardt cartoon collection]
* [http://www.americanabstractartists.org/ American Abstract Artists]
* [http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/findingaids/reinad.htm Ad Reinhardt Papers at the Smithsonian's Archives of American Art]
* [http://www.nyas.org/snc/podcastdetail.asp?id=1850 New York Academy of Sciences Podcast about the Black Painting]

Persondata
NAME=Reinhardt, Ad
ALTERNATIVE NAMES=born Frederick Adolph Reinhardt, also Adolph Frederick, A.D.F. Reinhardt ;DESCRIPTION=American painter
DATE OF BIRTH=December 24, 1913
PLACE OF BIRTH=Buffalo, New York
DATE OF DEATH=August 30 1967
PLACE OF DEATH=New York City