Art as Art

by Barbara Rose

Ad Reinhardt is probably best known for his black paintings, which aroused as much controversy as admiration in the American art world when they were first exhibited in the 1950s. Although his ideas about art and life were often at odds with those of his contemporaries, they prefigured the ascendance of minimalism. Reinhardt's interest in the Orient and in religion, his strong convictions about the value of abstraction, and his disgust with the commercialism of the art world are as fresh and valid today as they were when he first expressed them.

Barbara Rose is the author of books on Joan Miro, Claes Oldenburg, Lee Krasner, and Ellsworth Kelly and has twice received the College Art Association's Mather Award for distinguished criticism.

List of Illustrations
Introduction by Barbara Rose

I. Reinhardt on Reinhardt
Editor's Note
Chronology (1966)
A Contribution to a Journal of Some Future Art Historian (1958)
Five Stages of Reinhardt's Timeless Stylistic Art-Historical Cycle
(1965)
Reinhardt Paints a Picture (1965)
An Interview with Ad Reinhardt (1966-1967)
Monologue (1970)

II. Art as Art
Editor's Note
[Abstraction vs. Illustration] (1943)
Abstract Art Refuses (1952)
25 Lines of Words on Art: Statement (1958)
Art-as-Art (1962)
[Art-as-Art] (1962-63)
The Next Revolution in Art (1964)
Art in Art is Art-as-Art (1966)
39 Art Planks: Programs for "Program" Painting (1963)
There Is Just One Painting (1966)
[Art-as-Art] (1966-67)

III. The Black Paintings
Editor's Note
[The Black-Square Paintings] (1963)
The Black-Square Painting Shows, 1963, 1964, 1965 (1966)
Abstract Painting, Sixty by Sixty Inches Square, 1960, (1963)
[On the Black Paintings] (1963)
Black as Symbol and Concept (1967)
Dark (undated)
One
Black, Symbol (undated)
"Black" (undated)
Time (undated)
Black (undated)
[On Negation] (undated)
[Notes on the Black Paintings] (undated)
[Oneness] (undated)
[lmageless Icons] (undated)
The First Paintings
End

IV. Art and Life
Editor's Note
Paintings and Pictures (1943)
The Context of Art (1963)
To Be Part of Things ... (undated)
Routine Extremism (undated)
Museum (undated)
[Worldliness] (undated)
Timeless Art-Words (undated)
[Art in the World] (undated)
The Artist is Responsible . . .
Artist (undated)
[The Role of the Artist] (undated)
An Artist, a Fine-Artist or Free-Artist (undated)

V. Art and Ethics
Editor's Note
On Standards-in Art (1953)
44 Titles for Articles for Artists under 45 (1958)
On Art and Morality (1960)
What is Corruption? (1961)
[The Present Situation in Art]
The Artist in Search of a Code of Ethics (1960)
Aesthetic Responsibility (1962)
Documents of Modern Art (1960)

VI. Art and Politics
Editor's Note
[To the Artists' Union] (c. 1937)
[The Fine Artist and the War Effort] (c. 1943)
[What are Artists' Crimes as Artists?] (1963)
[Government and the Arts] (undated)

VII. Art and Religion
Editor's Note
[The Cult of Art] (undated)
Mandala (undated)
[Religious Strength through Market-place Joy] (undated)
[Creation as Content] (undated)

VIII. Art and Education
Editor's Note
The Artist in Search of an Academy, Part I (1953)
The Artist in Search of an Academy, Part II (1954)
Twelve Rules for a New Academy (1957)
Is There a New Academy? (1959)

IX. Essays on Art History
Editor's Note
Cycles through the Chinese Landscape (1954)
Timeless in Asia (1960)
Angkor and Art (1961)
Art vs. History (1966)
Bibliography