Untitled 1942

Ad Reinhardt made this Untitled piece with ink and watercolor. I find this piece interesting as it explores a sort of controlled chaos. Look at how the colors—red, blue, and black—bleed into each other, creating a sense of depth and movement. The ink lines, so bold and assertive, crisscross the watery washes, giving the whole composition a kind of nervous energy. I’m particularly drawn to how Reinhardt uses the white of the paper as a compositional element, allowing it to peek through and create little pockets of light. It's kind of like he's building up and then tearing down, and that's what makes it so dynamic. Thinking about the work of someone like Philip Guston, you can see a similar embrace of ambiguity and provisionality. It’s about the ongoing dialogue between artists.