Ad Reinhardt      

American (Buffalo, N.Y., 1913-1967, New York, N.Y.)

untitled

screenprint on post cards

1982.001.030

While many of the artists who contributed to the Artist & Writers Protest portfolio contributed work in their signature styles, Ad Reinhardt, the master of the reductive color field painting (see his black painting in Ten X Ten) jumped straight into protest mode with his list of prohibitions. His political engagement is not as surprising as it may seem. For a considerable part of his early adult life, Reinhardt had been an editorial cartoonist, and later he wrote highly opinionated illustrated articles about art and the politics of art.