The Shape of Colour
Excursions in Colour Field Art, 1950-2005
June 1 to August 7, 2005
Polly Apfelbaum (American, 1955- )
Gun Club, 2002
Synthetic velvet, fabric dye
5.79 x 6.4 meters
The Carol and Arthur Goldberg Collection, New York, NY
© 2005 Polly Apfelbaum
The exhibition reconsiders the 1960s chapter of colour field art not through critic Clement Greenberg's restrictive formalist lens, but rather opens up the impulse to pure colour and form to comprise a half-century of painting, sculpture and installation work. The exhibition posits Mark Rothko and Clyfford Still as essential precursors, includes the seminal colour field artists Helen Frankenthaler, Morris Louis and Jack Bush, expands definitions to encompass the work of Dan Flavin, and features numerous contemporary artists such as Monique Prieto and Polly Apfelbaum, who have refracted the legacy of colour field into our contemporary moment. Other artists whose work explores the possibilities through which to understand this fertile, but often overlooked movement include Ellsworth Kelly, Sol LeWitt, Agnes Martin, John McCracken, Guido Molinari, Michael Snow and Robert Youds.
Generously supported by:
The Volunteers of the Art Gallery of Ontario
and the Dedalus Foundation, Inc., New York
Supported by The Canada Council for the Arts
Catalogue publication generously supported by the Musagetes Fund held in the Kitchener and Waterloo Community Foundation