Adolph Frederick Reinhardt, better known as Ad Reinhardt, was a famous abstract painter who promoted the idea of ‘Abstract Expressionism’ as a part of his artistic movement. Reinhardt was a member of the American Abstract Artists group for ten years and was also one of the founding members of the Artist’s Club. Many of his works were exhibited at Betty Parsons Gallery in New York. He also taught art at many prestigious colleges during his lifetime. He created satirical cartoons as a part of philosophy of art, which he called ‘Art-as-Art’.
Childhood & Early Life
- Born into a family of immigrants in Buffalo, New York, Adolph Frederick Reinhardt grew up to be a great painter.
- His early schooling took place in New York City, where he showcased great talent from an early age.
- He completed his undergraduate studies at Columbia University, from 1931 to 1935. During this time, he also attended painting classes at Teachers College.
- Later, after graduation, he took painting lessons at the American Artists School and also studied portraiture, under Karl Anderson at the National Academy of Design.
Career
- Ad Reinhardt became one of the very few painters to be commissioned by Burgoyne Diller, for the prestigious WPA Federal Art Project, on which he worked from 1936 to 1940.
- He became one of the significant members of the American Abstract Artists group from 1937 to 1947 and thus, began his career as an abstract painter.
During this time, he displayed his work in a number of group exhibitions held at the Peggy Guggenheim Gallery.- Reinhardt landed his first solo exhibition at Columbia Teachers College, in 1943.
- Also in 1943, he designed a controversial anti-racist pamphlet called ‘Races of Mankind’, which aimed at spreading the message, especially among the US Army, which sold a million copies despite being banned.
- 1946 onwards, he began exhibiting his paintings on a yearly basis at the Betty Parsons Gallery, New York. He pioneered the hard-edge painting style during this time.
- In 1947, he started teaching art at Brooklyn College and continued doing so until his death in 1967.
- Besides, he also delivered lectures at the California School of Fine Arts, San Francisco, in 1950. Along with this he also lectured in the University of Wyoming, Laramie, in 1951. He took classes from 1952 to 1953 at the Yale University, New Haven and taught at Hunter College, New York, from 1959 to 1967.
- Reinhardt began to constrict his paintings to the use of single shade, initially beginning from red, followed by blue and finally black; the metamorphosis taking place in the 1950s.
- In 1966, a grand exhibition of Reinhardt’s paintings was organized by the Jewish Museum, New York, which also featured a special catalogue with texts by Lucy Lippard and the artist himself.
Major Works
- Ad Reinhardt was known for his abstract paintings and most of his exceptional paintings are displayed at the Museum of Modern Art, New York.
- His monochrome painting, which contains nine squares of different shades of black, is one of his most remarkable works.
- Reinhardt contributed artworks for many books including “Who’s Who in the Zoo” and “A Good Man and His Good Wife”.
- He published a number of cartoons and illustrations while working for the Picture Magazine (PM). Many of his works are included in the “How to Look at Art” series.
- He also worked on designing the covers of ‘Jester’, a humorous magazine, during his tenure at Columbia University.
Personal Life & Legacy
- Ad Reinhardt married Rita Ziprkowski in 1953. The couple was blessed with a daughter named Anna.
- Ad Reinhardt protested against the Metropolitan Museum of Art and designed many leaflets to voice his objections with the museum.
- He passed away on August 30, 1967, in New York City, due to heart failure. He was just 53 years old.
- Ad Reinhardt’s idea of minimalism and his style of modern art influenced many budding abstract artists during the 1970s.
- In 1970, the Marlborough Gallery, in New York, showcased a number of Black paintings, created by Ad Reinhardt, between 1951 and 1967.
- In 1980, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum organized an exhibition of his paintings under the title of “Reinhardt and Color”.
- Another fabulous exhibition of his paintings was held at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, in 1991.
1913:
1931:
1936:
1936:
1937:
1942:
1943:
1946:
1947:
1953:
1966:
1967:
comments About Ad Reinhardt