Color Field Painting Essay Example

its ability to test the limits of how art can fully evoke emotions and thoughts directly through the visual sense, much like how music appeals to the auditory sense without the need for interpretation. Painting holds great importance in American culture.

Clement Greenberg described painting as expansive canvases dominated by flat areas of color with minimal surface detail (Emmerich, 2004, 29).

Painting can be described as a unique form of art that allows individuals to express their intellectual ability by visually interpreting objects from their own perspective. This particular form of artwork focuses on color and proportion, ultimately having a significant impact on the viewer's emotions. Color Field painting developed as a way to distinguish itself from the earlier style of Abstract Expressionism. Artists creating Color Field paintings intentionally sought to not categorize their work as Abstract Expressionism. The materials commonly used in Color Field painting include unprimed canvases and various other supplies. One artist, Frankenthaler, followed Pollock's technique of pouring thinned-out pigment onto unprimed canvas. However, unlike Pollock's style that created intricate patterns, Frankenthaler opted for more fluid lines and pools of soft color. By doing so, she seamlessly combined painting and drawing techniques without relying on traditional marks typically associated with painting or drawing (Wilkin, 2007, 44).

What I have come to understand about Color Field painting is that its apparent simplicity can be deceivingly complex. When I attempted to recreate Mark Rothko's "Orange and Tan" painting, I encountered significant challenges. I mistakenly believed that because it appeared easy, I could effortlessly replicate it. However, I quickly realized that there were more than just the two colors I initially observed. In fact, there were approximately three

or four different colors, excluding variations and hues.

The color ranged from orange, light orange, dark orange, red, light red, dark red, and a small amount of black. Consequently, I opted against attempting to replicate Mark Rothko’s “Orange and Tan” painting. Instead, I chose to recreate Helen Frankenthaler’s “Air Frame”, which I found to be slightly less daunting. The aspect that aided my appreciation of Helen Frankenthaler’s artwork was the utilization of colors and the diverse range of shapes employed. Color Field painting is a form of contemporary art that also falls under the category of Postmodernism.

It qualifies as Postmodern because it occurred in the 1950s and 1960s. I believe postmodernism describes movements which react against, and arise from trends in modernism. Some specific trends of modernism are medium specificity, authenticity, and originality. Postmodern abstraction highlights ways that abstract painting references the world (Perry,2005, 20). Postmodernism is to recall traditional elements of style. It is also a reaction to the most profound spiritual and philosophical crises of our time-the failure of the Enlightenment (Powell,2007, 17).

Mark Rothko, an artist associated with the Color Field movement, emerged in the early 1940s. His work is renowned for its meticulous attention to formal elements, including color, shape, balance, depth, composition, and scale. Rothko's approach to color can be likened to the experiential aspect of measure, while scale is analogous to size—a subjective response rather than an objective one (Anfam, 1998). Initially, Color Field painting referred specifically to a type of abstract expressionism seen in the works of Rothko, Clyfford Still, Barnett Newman, Robert Motherwell, and Adolph Gottlieb. Art critic Clement Greenberg viewed Color Field painting as related to Action painting

but distinct from it.

Color Field painting aimed to remove unnecessary rhetoric from art. Artists such as Clyfford Still, Mark Rothko, Hans Hofmann, Morris Louis, Jules Olitski, Kenneth Noland, Helen Frankenthaler, Larry Zox, and others frequently employed minimal references to nature. Their paintings featured a psychologically and visually detailed application of color, ultimately eliminating identifiable imagery.

Certain artists referenced past or present art, but in general, Color Field painting showcases abstraction as its own purpose. By following this path in modern art, artists aimed to present each painting as a single, seamless, and monumental image. In contrast to the emotional intensity and expressive brushstrokes of Abstract Expressionists like Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning, Color Field painting initially seemed tranquil and minimalist, removing the personal mark in favor of expansive, solid blocks of color.