Reinhardt, Ad

Ad Reinhardt (1913-1967) is most well known for his paintings in the New York School, AKA Abstract Expressionism. He is likely most famous for his "black" or "ultimate" paintings, which he believed was the end of painting. Reinhardt was shown at the Peggy Guggenheim Gallery, and was later represented by Betty Parsons, with solo exhibitions beginning in the 1940s. Reinhardt was also an active cartoonist, working in a graphic style primarily for the New Masses in the 1930s, and PM newspaper in the 1940s. Both left-leaning publications touted a strong stable of artists, and Reinhardt's war cartoons were quite powerful. He incorporated a lot of high-contrast shapes and marks, resulting in work that looks remarkably contemporary. His work in PM incorporated quite a bit of collage elements in the cartoons.