Acrylic on canvas. Signed, dated and titled “suddenly” on the stretcher. 259.1 x 330.2 cm. . [JS].
- Noland's radiant " Chevrons" are considered icons of American "Color Field Painting". - Early "signature piece" in a stunning format. - No comparable work has been offered on the international market in the last 5 years (source: artprice.com) - Comprehensive exhibition history: Regularly featured exhibtions at international museums since the 1960s. - Of museum quality: Comparable works are part of the collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York (Blue Veil, 1963) and the Guggenheim Museum, New York (Trans Shift, 1964), among others. - Outstanding provenance: From the legendary Emmerich Gallery, New York, to the top-class Robert Rowan Collection with masterpieces of Color Field Painting and Pop Art.
LITERATURE: Sotheby`s, Contemporary Art, Part 2, London, November 18, 1999, lot 370 (illustrated). Rainhard Onnasch (ed.): Nineteen artists, El Sourdog Hex, Berlin 2010, illustrated on p. 34 and on p. 37.

American Art of the Sixties, San Francisco Museum of Art, San Francisco 1967. San Francisco Museum of Art. A Selection of Paintings and ans Sculptures from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Robert Rowan, University of California, Irvine 1976, cat. no. 98. Selections from the Mr. and Mrs. Robert A. Rowan Collection, Pasadena Art Museum 1970 (with the label on the stretcher). Special Loans, Pasadena Art Museum, 1972. The First Show: Paintings and Sculpture from Eight Collections 1940-1980, The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles 1984, p. 202 (illustrated, with the label on the stretcher). Onnasch. Aspects of Contemporary Art, Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona, Barcelona, November 7, 2001 - February 24, 2002 / Museu Serralves, Porto, March 22, 2002 - June 23, 2002, p. 76. Neues Museum Weserburg, Bremen (permanent loan sioce 2003) Who is Afraid of Red, Yellow and Blue? Positionen der Farbfeldmalerei, Kunsthalle Baden-Baden, July 2 - October 08, 2007. Morris Louis - Kenneth Noland. colorfield Painting, El Sourdog Hex, Berlin, March 12 - April 28, 2007

André Emmerich Gallery, New York. Robert A. Rowan Collection (acquired from the above in 1967 - until 1999: Sotheby´s). Private collection (since 1999)

Noland's radiant “Chevrons” - Icons of American “Color Field Painting” Executed in dazzling colors and overwhelming formats, Kenneth Noland's “Chevrons” from 1963, the year this fascinating series of works was created, are considered absolute “signature pieces” of American Color Field Painting. In the late 1950s, Noland, in his mid-thirties, began to place concentric circles in bright colors on unprimed canvas. In these interlocking circles, which are also called “targets” due to their similarity to a bull's eye, Noland already applied the “soak stain” technique (acrylic paint on an unprimed canvas) that he had conceived with his painter friend Morris Louis in context of their exploration of the contemporary work of Helen Frankenthaler. From 1963, Noland also employed this technique for his “Chevrons” on enormous canvases, which are now considered Noland's hallmark and, at the same time, icons of “Color Field Painting”. For this piece, the artist chose to work on a canvas measuring 2.59 meters in height and 3.30 meters in width, applying his famous jagged pattern in black, red, and bright orange to the enormous surface. Noland slightly varied both the width of the colored stripes and the spaces between them, thereby using minimal painterly means to give this outstanding composition an overwhelming visual presence and tension. Via Media (Suddenly)", 1963 - Kenneth Noland in New York After serving in the US Air Force, Noland was among the students of former Bauhaus artist Josef Albers at Black Mountain College in the late 1940s. After that, he spent time in Paris and Washington before he and Morris Louis visited Helen Frankenthaler's New York studio in 1953 at the initiative of the important art critic Clement Greenberg. There, Noland explored the gestural painting of Abstract Expressionism and Frankenthaler's innovative “soak stain” technique. Greenberg had already recognized Noland's tremendous artistic potential during an exhibition at the Kootz Gallery and encouraged the exchange with Frankenthaler. Legend has it that Noland supposedly saw the composition “Mountains and Sea” (1952), one of the first paintings in the “soak stain” technique on unprimed canvas, in the context of his visit. This experience is said to have had a lasting impact on Noland's painting. After Morris Louis' death, Noland finally settled permanently in the vibrant art metropolis of New York in 1962. In 1963, Noland created his first “Chevron,” those characteristic V-shaped paintings that would become Noland's artistic trademark. The present work, “Via Media (Suddenly)” (1963), was created during this critical early New York phase; it presents the pure color effect of red and orange in an extraordinary dynamism gained from the momentum of the shape of the arrow. The perfect balance - the ratio of painted to unpainted surface While Noland initially painted the whole surface of his “Chevrons,” he soon started leaving parts of the canvas uncovered, as can be seen in the present composition. Henceforth, he integrated the untouched canvas into his painting as an important formal element. The direct juxtaposition of painted and unpainted areas creates a striking aesthetic that inevitably draws the viewer's attention to the process of the painterly fusion of color and material. Like Frankenthaler and Louis, Noland also experimented with diluted acrylic-based paints that would make it nearly impossible to rework or alter the color gradients after the paint had soaked into the unprimed canvas surface. Noland once referred to this type of painting, which does not allow for any corrections and must always be a success on the first try, as “one-shot painting”. As early as 1977, the Guggenheim Museum in New York honored Noland's outstanding work with a first retrospective. His early “Chevron Paintings” are now part of significant international museum collections, including the Museum of Modern Art, New York, and the Guggenheim Museum, New York. [JS]

Condition report on request katalogisierung@kettererkunst.de