Ad Reinhardt

Ad Reinhardt (1913 – 1967) was born Adolph Dietrich Friedrich Reinhardt in 1913 in Buffalo, New York. He studied Art History under Meyer Schapiro at Columbia University, New York from 1931 to 1935 and studied painting with Carl Holty and Francis Criss at the American Artists School from 1936 to 1937. He also studied at the National Academy of Design with Karl Anderson in 1936. Between 1936 and 1939, Reinhardt worked for the WPA Federal Art Project.

From 1937 to 1947, he was a member of the American Abstract Artists group. Reinhardt continued his studies from 1946 to 1951 at the New York University Institute of Fine Arts.

Reinhardt’s influence as a teacher and writer was as significant as his art. He taught at Brooklyn College from 1947 to 1967. He also lectured at the California School of Fine Arts, San Francisco, in 1950; the University of Wyoming, Laramie, in 1951; Yale University, New Haven, from 1952 to 1953; and at Hunter College, New York, from 1959 to 1967.

Reinhardt was given his first solo exhibition at Columbia Teachers College in 1943, and by 1946 was showing regularly with the Betty Parsons Gallery, New York. Reinhardt was a pioneer of Hard-edge painting at this time. In the 1950s, he began to limit his palette to a single colour, moving from red to blue and then to his final stage of black paintings.

In 1966, the Jewish Museum, New York, organised an exhibition of Reinhardt’s paintings, which was accompanied by a catalogue with texts by Lucy Lippard and the artist – Reinhardt died the following year. In 1970, the Marlborough Gallery in New York exhibited the Black Paintings executed between 1951 and 1967. In 1972, the Kunsthalle Düsseldorf organized an exhibition of Reinhardt’s work, which traveled to the Stedelijk Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven; Kunsthaus Zürich; Centre National d’Art Contemporain, Paris; and Museum des 20. Jahrhunderts, Vienna. The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, mounted an exhibition entitled Reinhardt and Color in 1980. Reinhardt’s essays continued to influence many Conceptual artists in the 1970s. The Museum of Modern Art, New York, organized a major exhibition of Reinhardt’s work in 1991. He died in 1967 in New York.

Ad Reinhardt 1937 Untitled 
oil on wood

Ad Reinhardt 1938 Study for a Painting 
collage

Ad Reinhardt 1939 Paper Collage

Ad Reinhardt 1940 Untitled

Ad Reinhardt 1941 Red and Blue Composition 
oil on fibreboard

Ad Reinhardt 1941 Untitled 
paper collage

Ad Reinhardt 1944 Abstraction

Ad Reinhardt 1946 Yellow Painting (Abstraction) 
oil on canvas 

Ad Reinhardt 1950 Untitled (Red and Grey)

Ad Reinhardt 1950 Untitled (Yellow and White)

Ad Reinhardt 1951-52 Abstract Painting

Ad Reinhardt 1952 Abstract Painting, Blue

Ad Reinhardt 1952 Abstract Painting, Blue

Ad Reinhardt 1952 Abstract Painting, Red

Ad Reinhardt 1954-58 Painting 
oil on canvas

Ad Reinhardt 1955 Free and Fluid / Matisse Reclining Figure 
india ink on postcard

Ad Reinhardt 1955 Front of Free and Fluid

Ad Reinhardt 1957 Abstract Painting

Ad Reinhardt 1958 Places He Travelled 
india ink on coloured pencil on postcard

Ad Reinhardt 1961 Abstract Painting No. 4

Ad Reinhardt 1962 Abstract Painting No. 5

Ad Reinhardt 1963 Abstract Painting