Kenneth Noland (American, 1924-2010)

Diagonal Stripes VI-8, 1978

Handmade paper with colored pulp

50 x 31 inches

Signed and dated in pencil lower right

Tyler graphics blind stamp lower right corner

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"Both a summation and a point of departure, Noland’s handmade paper compositions were created at a pivotal juncture; in 1977 Noland was the focus of a major retrospective that opened at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and toured nationally through the following spring. Like many mid-career artists confronted by a survey of their own work, Noland was then eager to both revisit earlier themes and to expand his practice. The handmade paper compositions immediately answered this need, allowing him to work with a tactile freedom that announced a fresh departure in his studio methods.

Noland launched this series using the remarkable facilities offered by Ken Tyler and Lindsay Green at Tyler Graphics in New York. There he explored both papermaking and printmaking techniques that were new to him, but which he quickly adapted to his own purposes. As Judith Goldman has documented: “Making paper felt as familiar to Noland as staining color in canvas. It was fast, direct, and not like the traditional print media, a transfer process. . . . He could make one-of-a-kind images himself.” Goldman explains the particular appeal of this method for Noland, “In some ways, papermaking was more direct than painting. A brush was unnecessary; he could use his hands. Instead of raw canvas, he could begin on a colored ground. To create texture and color, he could overlap pulp, and add colored pulp and cut-up papers at any point in the process. By embedding color inside the paper, he could define its shape.

Always inventive, Noland introduced different materials and fibers into the pulp slurries from which paper was pressed. He could adjust the density of the pressing so that the resulting sheets could range from delicate transparency to substantial supports with deckled edges and variegated surfaces. In some instances he would further develop the compositions through lithographic and screenprint overlays in which image and ground merge. ” - Chron August 23, 2014

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Biography

Born on April 10, 1924 in Asheville, NC, Noland was a veteran of World War II and took advantage of the G.I. Bill to study at the Black Mountain College, where he learned color theory from Josef Albers and became interested in the paintings of Paul Klee. Noland was a leading American Color Field painter. His interest in working with flat colors developed into a fixation with simple shapes like chevrons, stripes, and bullseyes. Noland’s hallmark technique of staining unprimed canvas arose from his interactions with Morris Louis, Clement Greenberg, and Helen Frankenthaler. Noland represented the United States in the 1964 Venice Biennale, and over the following decades, continued to experiment with the same forms for which he was known. Noland died in Port Clyde, ME on January 5, 2010. Today, and his work can be found in the permanent collections of the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, the Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C., the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, and the Tate Gallery in London, among others.