Untitled #5. From the portfolio: 10 Screenprints

Ad Reinhardt’s black works require patience. Although at first they appear to be pure black, subtleties of tone reveal themselves slowly, like your eyes adjusting to a darkened room. Geometric shapes in deep tones of grey, indigo, and maroon are barely discernible on the flat black background.

Reinhardt rigidly believed in art for art’s sake. He wanted his work to refer to nothing outside itself – instead, it is all about standing before an art work and just seeing.

He became best known for the square black paintings made in the final decade of his life, which he described as ‘The first paintings which cannot be misunderstood.’