Colour field painting is a form of expression in contemporary art that is characterised by large-scale, homogeneously filled colour fields. This art movement developed in the mid-1950s in America out of Abstract Expressionism. Mark Rothko, Barnett Newman (Who's afraid of red, yellow and blue) and Helen Frankenthaler are important precursors or representatives of this style.
The works are mostly large-format. Often the paint is applied (emptied, poured, sprayed) directly onto the unprimed canvas (lying horizontally on the floor) without using classical painting utensils and thus penetrates directly into the fabric (soak-stain technique) - quite comparable to dyeing a fabric.
1959-today
Colour Field Painting
The term Color Field Painting was coined by the US art critic Clement Greenberg, one of whose favourites was Jules Olitski. Other important representatives of colour field painting (whose most important creative periods can be assigned to this movement) are Clyfford Still, Morris Louis, Kenneth Noland, Larry Poons, Sam Gilliam, Gene Davis, Friedel Dzubas, Wolfgang Hollegha, Jack Bush, Walter Darby Bannard, Thomas Downing, Howard Mehring and Paul Reed.
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