May 29 – November 8, 2026
Mr. and Mrs. Charles G. Magruder Gallery I
In the decades following the Second World War, artists continued developing new stylistic vocabularies, sustaining the Abstract Expressionist movement amid the rise and influence of Minimalism, Conceptualism, and Pop Art. In Color Fields and Inspirations, works by acclaimed artists of the 1960s and 1970s invite an ongoing conversation that embraces intuition, experimentation, and reflection on materiality.
Color Fields, or broad areas of pure color, became a potent style in which artists explored the emotive effect of color on one’s experience of a painting. Here, viewers can take their time, look closely, and discover the stirring quality of these paintings, in which color, texture, and gesture take precedence over narrative, while considering the influence these artists had on one another.
From Helen Frankenthaler’s revolutionary soak-stained canvases to Morris Louis’s translucent veils and Jules Olitski’s airy colors; from Richard Diebenkorn’s contemplative, abstracted figures to Gene Davis’s rhythmic stripes and Jane A. Kaufman’s textured surfaces; from Robert Natkin’s lyrical fields to Kenzo Okada’s meditative landscapes and Friedel Dzubas’s sweeping expanses; and from the balance of metallic forms in Robert Ellison Singleton’s paintings to Harry Bertoia’s sculptures, each artist has produced a work of art that compels the viewer to experience both sensation and reflection.
The artists presented here continued the conversation of Modernism, investigating color, light, movement, and the relationship between viewer and object. Together, they reveal an extraordinary diversity in Abstract and Color Field Art, reminding us that sometimes the most powerful experiences come not from what we recognize, but from what we feel
Helen Frankenthaler, Moon Dance, 1977, Acrylic on canvas. Collection of the Orlando Museum of Art.s Donated in memory of J. Hyde Crawford and Anthony Tortora, 2014.19
