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Abstract Painting 1966

Depending on the angle you look at it: A dark black square, five feet across, featureless seeming at first, but with a faintly visible tic-tac-toe-like grid or pattern. The darkness varies subtly row-to-row and column-to-column, and the four square corner cells are the darkest. The middle row of the same width seems faintly to glow end-to-end in a continuous band across the painting. Glowing slightly fainter, the square top and bottom ends of the central column seem to protrude from behind it. The pattern suggests the plaid of a tablecloth up close or magnified. Walking past it, the light and dark exchange places and the pattern reverses: The glow of the squares and bands changing with the angle of view and the orientation of the light source.

This ghostly quality, in the context of the overlapping cross pieces, might bring to mind a crucifix. Also there is a purity and perfection in the geometry, and in the absence of brush marks, even on close inspection. But the title of the artwork, by Ad Reinhardt, is Abstract Painting. It may speak to a spiritual urge, but the intent seems to be simply to inspire and defy interpretation.