Another Great One Gone

In the 1960's "Pop Art", "Minimalism" and "Color Field" competed for art world dominance. Color Field lost.

And this week the art world lost one of the founding fathers of Color Field- Kenneth Noland. Noland died of cancer this past Tuesday January 5, 2010. He was 85.

Color Field painting is defined by Wikepedia as:

"...characterized primarily by large fields of flat, solid color spread across or stained into the canvas; creating areas of unbroken surface and a flat picture plane. The movement places less emphasis on gesture, brushstrokes and action in favour of an overall consistency of form and process."

Noland's 'Target Paintings" is a series of nearly 200 paintings of concentric circles he made in the 1950s that helped him break away from the abstract expressionism of the time. He influenced several other artists, most notably Mark Rothko and Barnett Newman.

He leaves widowed Paige Rense, Editor-in-Chief of Architectural Digest.