ave if he heard me say that. He thought of himself as an expressionist, but I think for strategic reasons. The press was more interested in and could make more hay with the expressionist angle. Thats just politics, right? He was an expressionist, but of a different kind. Reinhardt was different but in a different way(Abstraction: Geometry: Painting)."In the researching of Ad Reinhardt's work, I found that his work could also be looked at in a spiritual context, although Reinhardt would have never admitted that. Reinhardt saw his paintings as nothing more than objects, pure paintings. In the book, The Spiritual in Art, Abstract Painting 1890-1985, Allen Watts looks at the way a viewer could possibly perceive a black Reinhardt in relation to that of Zen thought and meditation. "What is form that is emptiness, what is emptiness that is formTo study a black painting by Ad Reinhardt involves a process similar to Zen meditation -a deceptively similar affair that consists only in watching everything that is happening, including your own thoughts and your breathing. Granting one's vision sufficient time to perceive the resonant hues and shapes in a painting by Reinhardt is equivalent to the assumption of a meditative position. Then the painting seems to yield its essence all at once (The Spiritual in Art, Abstract Painting 1890-1985)."It is possible that Reinhardt saw his work in this manner but chooses not to speak of it. I doubt that the "average" viewer would take Zen into consideration when looking at Reinhardt's work. Although it could be the way in which the work was made. Ad Reinhardt may have felt a deep connection spiritually to his work. Mark Rothko and Barnett Newman as well as many other painters welcomed the spiritual into their paintings. In some cases, especially with Rothko, the spiritual was the driving force behind the painting. In Reinhardt's case, it seems that the simple geometry and bareness of the painting is all that ma...
