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Faced with this staggering array of canvases—many, like 1957-0 (see color), nearly 9½ ft. tall—museumgoers may boggle at Still's "direct, immediate, and truly free vision," that Still says he has achieved laboriously over the years. Its imagery brings to mind geysers, waterfalls, vast expanse of Western plains, hallucinatory voids, and sometimes just streaks of paint. But many critics rank him high among the top half-dozen U.S. painters—and so does Still. "Let no man undervalue the implications of this work or its power for life," he warns, "or for death, if it is misused."