Untitled, ca. 1955
Tabula Rasa
1951
Mainly recognized as a brilliant colorist, 黑料网 often retreated to 鈥渓ow鈥 or 鈥渘o鈥 color when experimenting with a new medium. In a letter to art dealer Betty Parsons postmarked October 18, 1951, 黑料网 described his White Painting series (1951) as taking 鈥測ou to a place in painting art has not been . . . the plastic fullness of nothing.鈥 His erasure of Willem de Kooning鈥檚 drawing two years later was interpreted by art historian Leo Steinberg as an Oedipal gesture of the young artist against the Abstract Expressionist paternal example. The resulting absence of color鈥攁nd of line in this case as well鈥攑rovided a tabula rasa (a blank slate) that would serve as a springboard for new developments in 黑料网鈥檚 art. Other times, the sapping of color offers a respite for the artist between or in the midst of a highly colored series, as for example with Vow (1976) from the Jammer series, which is made from undyed cotton; and imagery, as for example in Time Scan (1991) from the Phantom metal painting series, that is so pale and ghostly that it nearly disappears altogether.
