Focal Points: Ad Reinhardt

How can we interpret the work of contemporary artists? Focal Points is a new book series of essays, articles and reviews by acclaimed curator and critic Robert Storr. Expertly edited by art historian and curator Francesca Pietropaolo, and richly illustrated, it lends Storr’s illuminating insights into an artist’s practice and way of thinking across recent decades. Brilliantly scholarly, accessible and engaging, Focal Points offers fresh interpretations of the varied territory of modern and contemporary art.

This second volume considers the work of American abstract painter Ad Reinhardt (1913–1967). Active in New York for over three decades, Reinhardt was part of the group of artists who became known as Abstract Expressionists, and he made work that would prove influential to the younger generation of Minimal and Conceptual artists. He believed in a philosophy of what he called ‘art-as-art’ and used his writing and satirical cartoons to advocate for abstract art. As he famously wrote in 1962: ‘Art is art-as-art and everything else is everything else.’ In this volume, Storr discusses Reinhardt’s painting, his comics, and his slide lecture series or ‘non-happenings,’ as the artist called them.

To coincide with the publication of the first three volumes, a new film has been released by HENI Talks, featuring Robert Storr, in conversation with Norwich-based art writer and editor Aimee Dawson. Discussing all three volumes, sharing his illuminating insights, the author discusses the artist-critic relationship, the commitment not to rewrite the back catalogue and to a continually evolving point of view in “the spirit of a staircase”. Watch the interview here.