inside the square. Once you look away from the canvas, the circle is gone. With this observation in mind, we could say that the painting most definitely relies on the viewer. A viewer is required to look at the piece for its full affect. We could say that the squares in the painting are self-contained. On the other hand, the squares create a visual effect that isn't even on the canvas. They create an experience and shape thats completely opposite of the paintings overall form and composition. Reinhartd's painting is abstract, expressive and analytical. We can recognize the abstractness as the idea of a black on black square. The expressive quality becomes evident when we realize that Reinhartd's hand can not be seen. The amount of self-containment and painstaking labor needed to make such a flat painting is immense. This labor can be recognized as Reinhartd's expressive nature through paint. As we dig deeper, the subject matter lends itself to analyticity. The plane on which we view Ad Reinhardt's painting is much higher than first perceived. To understand the subject, the viewer most also understand Reinhardt's philosophy of painting. Reinhardt's painting goes further than the visual "black square". Within this black square is the end of all painting and the start of a new. Ad Reinhardt's Abstract Painting 1960-65 (history and context)Ad Reinhardt's Abstract Painting 1960-65, was created over a span of five years. This painting, as well as many of Reinhardt's paintings is considered to be the end of painting. The nothingness of painting. In 1959 painters such as Jasper Johns, Ellsworth Kelly, Frank Stella, Joseph Albers and Willem de Kooning were showing exhibiting regularly and thought to be in their prime. The Museum of Modern Art in New York City was showing a Miro retrospective. The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum had just opened in New York, offering a new collection a chance for artists to show work. As the 60's ...
