Glory of the World

This text casts new light on mid-20th century Color Field painting from the perspective of the artists' ambitions for the future of abstract painting. Color Field became a convenient, albeit imperfect term to describe paintings in which vast areas of colour appear as the dominant force. Color Field was not an art movement, rather it was a cohort of likeminded artists. While the American Abstract Expressionists cleared a path for this postwar generation to forge ahead with abstract painting, their achievements also challenged artists such as Frank Bowling, Helen Frankenthaler, Sam Gilliam, Morris Louis, Kenneth Noland, Jules Olitski, Larry Poons, Frank Stella and Alma Thomas, to create abstraction anew. Experimenting with non-traditional painting mediums and methods, as well as these artists' probing of the conventions of painting led to unprecedented works.