Noland, Kenneth

Noland, Kenneth nōˈlənd [key], 1924–2010, American painter, b. Asheville, N.C. An outstanding colorist, Noland was one of the best-known exponents of the abstract painting movement known as color-field painting. He experimented with bands of pure color in bull's-eye and chevron motifs and horizontal parallel stripes, emphasizing the flatness of his usually large canvases and the vibrancy of his colors by staining paint into raw canvas and using uniform color values. In his work color itself is the subject. Later paintings treat plaid designs with muted color bands of varied width.

See R. H. Love, Kenneth Noland: Major Works (1986); K. Wilkin, Kenneth Noland (1990); A. de Lima Greene and K. Wilkin, Kenneth Noland: The Nature of Color (museum catalog, 2005).

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