Color Field

Color Field painting is a branch of American abstract expressionism that turns color itself into the subject. Where action painters dramatized the gesture, Color Field painters like Mark Rothko, Barnett Newman and Clyfford Still spread thin, hovering veils or jagged expanses of pigment across huge canvases, seeking an enveloping, almost sublime experience. A second wave in the 1950s and 1960s - Helen Frankenthaler with her soak-stain method, Morris Louis with rivulets of thinned acrylic, Kenneth Noland with concentric targets and stripes - cleared the surface of visible brushwork, letting pigment soak directly into unprimed canvas. The results are flat, luminous and edge-conscious, and they pushed painting toward pure opticality, opening the way for hard-edge abstraction and minimalist color.

Defining characteristics

• Large fields of flat or thinly washed color as the primary subject
• Soft, hovering edges (Rothko) or abrupt, jagged ones (Still)
• Suppressed brushwork; soak-stain into unprimed canvas (Frankenthaler, Louis)
• Scale chosen to envelop the viewer's field of vision
• Luminous, atmospheric depth without depicted space

Key figures

• Mark Rothko (1903-1970) — Painter of hovering rectangles of luminous color
• Barnett Newman (1905-1970) — Painter of vast fields punctuated by vertical zips
• Clyfford Still (1904-1980) — Painter of jagged, flame-like expanses of color
• Helen Frankenthaler (1928-2011) — Inventor of the soak-stain technique
• Morris Louis (1912-1962) — Poured veils and rivulets of thinned acrylic into raw canvas

Example works

• Vir Heroicus Sublimis — Barnett Newman (1950-1951)
• Mountains and Sea — Helen Frankenthaler (1952)

Sources

• Color Field - Wikipedia encyclopedia

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