Washington Color School | washingtoncschool

Morris Louis, Point of Tranquility, 1959-60, magna acrylic on canvas, Hirshorn Museum and Sculpture Garden Collection, Washington, D.C.

Howard Mehring, Untitled,1960, Acrylic on Canvas, N/A.

Morris Louis, Delta Theta, 1961, magna acrylic on canvas, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.

Kenneth Noland, “Hover”, 1963, acrylic resin paint (magna) on canvas, Harvard Art Museums

Howard Mehring,"Spring Is", 1963, Acrylic on Canvas, The Vincent Melzac Collection, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Gene Davis,"Black Rhythm",1964, Acrylic on Canvas, Vincent Melzac Collection

Kenneth Noland, Shoot, 1964, magna acrylic on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C.

Thomas Downing, “France Blue”, 1965, acrylic on canvas, Peyton Wright Gallery

Gene Davis,"Popsicle",1969, Acrylic on Canvas, Terreza Gallery

Thomas Downing, “Kissii”, 1972, acrylic on canvas, David Richard Gallery

Morris Louis’s “Point of Tranquility” is one of his many paintings from the Floral series. In order to create a translucent effect, Louis poured the paint while turning the canvas. This caused the paint to mostly accumulate at the center, creating the flower-like imagery. This style was important in separating him from abstract expressionism because he had a central point of view other than an all over type of composition.

In most of Howard Mehring’s pieces, as seen in one of his various untitled works, Untitled, he refuses to place any primer on the canvas allowing a raw paint feel for the image. This also allows for an atmospheric feel or a field to be illusioned in, or because of, the colours (leading to the name Field Painters). Like most of the Washington Color School painters, Mehring added to the primal feel of the painting by mixing contrasting and bright hues together. The colours allow for a feel of depth to the piece adding to the illusion of the painting.

Morris Louis was one of the developers of the Color Field painters. His work was often done in a series of paintings that were at times nearly identical. “Delta Theta” is from Louis’s Unfurled series. Here, he experimented with a technique of pouring the paint from the corners of the canvas. He then left the center mostly untouched. This approach was innovative in terms of dealing with pictorial space.

Kenneth Noland was an artist whose pieces mostly included the presence of plain and simple two dimensional shapes or patterns of varying pure and complementary colors. He experimented with color theory and the relationships that colors could share with one another by allowing the colors to interchange and interplay with one another. In his works, there is a constant desire to allow the color to become the primary focus.

Interestingly, Mehring started to abstract geometric letters in his paintings. Unlike his other paintings, the abstracted letters, as seen with Spring Is, he pasted painted shapes onto the canvas rather than painting directly onto the canvas. Spring Is consists of Two Es that form the outline of a dark blue H. The abstraction of this painting is meant to trick the eye, making the viewers see more than one image purely by using the light and dark hues of the painting.

This piece by Gene Davis continues his signature style of parallel vertical lines. Because of his desire to create rhythm and balance within his pieces, he focuses on emphasizing the color, pattern, and contrast between the wide varieties of colors to unify the work as a whole. His paintings are meant to be viewed from one side to the other, focusing on how the corresponding colors interact with each other.

Kenneth Noland, like Morris Louis, played a major role in the Color Field style. “Shoot” is one of his more well known pieces from his chevron paintings. He worked with warm and cool colors in order to create a central view point at the top middle of the canvas. In doing so, he forced the eye of the viewer to move from that point outward. This was unique because it contrasted the common landscape view from left to right.

In this piece there is a clear attempt at a study of color in Downing’s primary choice of ‘subject’, the colorful dot. These dots seem to be complementary colors of the primary ‘France Blue’ that covers the entire canvas ‘background’. It is important to note that Downing liked creating the free-floating dots as a way to challenge and facilitate conversation on the impact of color on the interpretation of foreground, background, and the projection of images from the surface of the canvas.

As the leader of the Washington Color School movement, Gene Davis focuses on color to bring a range of bright colors that seem to pop off the canvas. This piece is specifically noteworthy because of Davis’ ability to bring together colors that normally clash like lime green and electric pink. Davis has a unique style in which he controls the order of weight and balance of the colors with simple parallel vertical lines.

Thomas Downing is known for his use of color in simplistic forms; namely colorful dots. His works are mainly compositions of dots in a variety of colors placed in an ordered pattern across the canvas. In this piece he simply focuses the colored dots evenly in the center of the canvas but in doing so he seeks to initiate a deeper conversation about the spacing of colors and how they coexist with one another.