Vari-color gold 1976

Robert Goodnough created "Vari-color gold" using paint on canvas. Goodnough was part of the second generation of abstract expressionists working in the United States, whose project was to establish the avant-garde credentials of American art. The all-over composition with its floating shapes shows the influence of Jackson Pollock and Joan Miró. He's working within a style that’s been given the institutional seal of approval through exhibitions and collections in major museums. What is interesting is the way Goodnough brings a playful aspect to abstraction. The triangles of color, which appear to be sprinkled across the canvas, resist any symbolic meaning or deeper interpretation, and so the work refuses to be anything other than a field of color. To gain a deeper understanding of this work, one could explore the archives and records relating to the rise of Abstract Expressionism, the role of critics and curators, and the evolving reception of abstract art in postwar America. In this way we can see art as something made within, and contingent upon, its cultural moment.