Figure of Piety Alfred Manessier 1944-45 MOMA

COLORIn Paintings

Red Abstract

Ad Reinhardt 1952Yale University

Composition No. 7 Piet Mondrian1914

"I make complexes of lines and colors on a flat plane in order to express universal beauty in plastic terms . . . . Nature (or the visible) inspires me . . . but I want to approach truth as closely as possible; I therefore abstract everything until I attain the essential of things (though still their outward essential!) . . . . I am sure that, precisely by not attempting to express anything definite, one expresses what is most definite of all: truth (the all-embracing)."

Broadway Boogie Woogie Piet Mondrian1942-43 MOMA

Morning on the Seine, near Giverny Claude Monet 1897 MFA Boston

Waterlilies I Claude Monet 1905 MFA Boston

Seated Figure Luibov Popova circa 1915

"Representation of reality -- without artistic deformation and transformation -- cannot be the subject of painting."

(From Popova's essay in the Catalogue to the 10th State Exhibition: Non-Objective Creation and Suprematism,

Moscow 1919).

Untitled (brown and grey) Mark Rothko 1969MFA Boston

White Center Mark Rothko 1969

Mauerpflanze (wallflower) Paul Klee 1922 MFA Boston

Ad Parnassum Paul Klee 1932

Dancing Willows Arthur Doveabout 1944MFA Boston

"I would like to make something that is real in itself," [Arthur Dove] once wrote, "that does not remind anyone of any other thing, and that does not have to be explained like the letter A, for instance." And so, in a sense, he did. For Dove was the first American artist to paint a completely abstract picture, or rather a set of six.

Hot Still-Scape for Six Colors- 7th Avenue Style Stuart Davis 1940MFA Boston

Stuarts “Still-Scape” combines still life and landscape, alluding both to the objects in his studio and to the world outside, on Seventh Avenue. Davis wrote: “The subject matter of this picture is well within the everyday experience of any modern city dweller. Fruit and flowers and kitchen utensils; fall skies; horizons; taxi cabs; radio; art exhibitions and reproductions; fast travel; Americana; movies; electric signs; dynamics of city sights and sounds.” The artist’s impressions of the city are captured with energy and flair by his jaunty line, vibrant palette (the “six colors” of the title), and the gritty texture of his paint.

Composition IV Vasily Kandinsky 1911

Composition V Vasily Kandinsky 1911

Breakfast of the Birds

Gabriele Munter 1934

Introspection Stanton MacDonald-

Wright 1963-64

Street, Dresden Ernst Ludwig Kirchner 1908 (dated 1907)MOMA

The German artists of Die Brücke explored the expressive possibilities of color, form, and composition in creating images of contemporary life. Street, Dresden is Kirchner's bold, discomfiting attempt to render the jarring experience of modern urban bustle. The scene radiates tension. Its packed pedestrians are locked in a constricting space; the plane of the sidewalk, in an unsettlingly intense pink (part of a palette of shrill and clashing colors), slopes steeply upward, and exit to the rear is blocked by a trolley car.

Self-portrait with model Ernst Ludwig Kirchner 1910

Self-portrait as a Drunkard Ernst Ludwig Kirchner 1914

For M Philip Guston 1955

Head Philip Guston 1975

The Birth of the World Joan Miro 1925MOMA