Art: Ad Absurdum

Among the new acquisitions currently on display at Manhattan's Museum of Modern Art is a large square canvas called Abstract Painting that seems at first glance to be entirely black. Closer inspection shows that it is subtly divided into seven lesser areas. In a helpful gallery note at one side. Abstractionist Ad Reinhardt explains his painting. It is: "A square (neutral, shapeless) canvas, five feet wide, five feet high, as high as a man, as wide as a man's outstretched arms (not large, not small, sizeless), trisected (no composition), one horizontal form negating...

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