Untitled #5 (2-17-55) 1955

Myron Stout made this untitled painting in 1955, and it’s like looking into a world stripped down to its bare essentials: two white, almost pear-like shapes floating in a sea of black. The surface has this incredible texture, like velvet, that invites you to reach out and touch it, even though you definitely shouldn't! Stout’s use of color is so simple, black and white, yet he coaxes a whole universe of feeling from it. Look at the way the light catches those white shapes, they're not just flat, they're built up with layers of paint, giving them a real sense of weight. Then there’s the black, it's not just a background, it's a deep, mysterious space that seems to breathe. Stout was interested in reduction, a kind of artistic paring down that relates him to artists like Agnes Martin and Robert Ryman, who were also invested in the power of simplicity. What does this say? What does this mean? It asks us to look, to feel, and to find our own answers in the quiet spaces between the shapes.