FINE ART : PAINTINGS

Crystal (1959)

Painting

Noland, Kenneth b.1924 (Primary maker)
Noland, Kenneth b.1924 (artist)

1959
1959

Born at Ashfield, North Carolina, Noland studied at the Zadkine School of Sculpture, Paris. By the early 1950s he had joined a group of artists, loosely grouped around the painters Morris Louis and Helen Frankenthaler. These artists were experimenting with pure colour painting by using acrylic paints to stain large unprimed canvases. Known as ‘colour field’ painters, Noland and his associates were reacting against the powerful energy of abstract expressionism and action painting, characterised by artists such as Jackson Pollock and de Kooning.During the 1950s Noland rejected the fluid shapes used by his contempories in favour of more geometric motifs. By the early 1960s he was exploring the possibilities of using concentric circles on square canvases and employing simple, yet highly effective, colour contrasts. ‘Crystal’ anticipates the geometric forms and colour contrasts of his later work.

acrylic on canvas

BELUM.U715

National Museums NI