Color Field Painting

Color field painting, an abstract art movement, was part of the New York School of Art that developed in the US in the 1940s and 1950s.

Consisting of broad fields of color, this type of painting challenged viewers’ perceptions and notions about art.

Along with other artists in the New York School, they found their way to New York from Europe as well as various parts of the US and were responsible for shifting the center of the art world from Paris to New York in the 1950s.

Artists who practiced color field painting focused their creative energies on color and shape without any reference to objects in the real world.

Known for applying large, solid fields of color to their canvases, they juxtaposed different colors to examine their effect on human perception and to, according to New York School philosophy, express deep universal truths.

Ad Reinhardt, on the other hand, bypassed the use of shape in his paintings entirely and preferred to paint the full canvas in one flat color.

Color field painting like other types of New York School painting was intended to reflect deep universal truths about the nature of existence.