Portfolio: 10 Screenprints

Ad Reinhardt considered his black paintings the ultimate art works. He liked the ‘nothingness’ of black, resisting its religious and emotional associations. Yet there is a mystical quality to his work, in the ghostly forms that hover – barely visible – on the luscious black surfaces.

From 1954, Reinhardt worked exclusively with the colour black. Although his work was often associated with abstract expressionism, he rejected the movement’s emphasis on expressive brush strokes and emotional intensity.

Reinhardt started printmaking in 1964 as a way to further remove evidence of the artist’s hand from the art work. Created the year before he died, ‘10 Screenprints’ was conceived as a retrospective project to draw together the most important philosophical strands of his artistic practice.