Drift

In 1977 Noland described the experimental process of color-field artists in these words: "We were making abstract art, but we wanted to simplify the selection of materials . . . To get to raw canvas, to use the canvas unstretched-to use it in more basic or fundamental ways, to use it as fabric rather than as a stretched surface. To use paint, thinner and more economically, to find new paints, from the industrial system, like plastics."In this work, a soft, stained surface of tonal gradations is outlined with crisp stripes whose slightly raised edges indicate that tape or some other guide was used. The contrast of glossy and matte paint intensifies the tension between the surface and the sharp lines.