In colour: the Colour Field movement’s past and present merge at Paul Kasmin

Paul Kasmin Gallery artwork
Paul Kasmin Gallery presnts a snapshot of the Color Field movement’s past and present with its latest show, dedicated to the artists Morris Louis and Landon Metz
(Image credit: press)

The Color Field movement – defined by saturated paint and amorphous shapes – was a distinctive approach pioneered by Morris Louis and Kenneth Noland, a conscious rejection the abstract expressionism of Jackson Pollock and Franz Kline. 

There’s a new generation of artists echoing and reinventing that practice – and none more so than the Brooklyn-based artist Landon Metz.

Paul Kasmin Gallery’s latest staging cleverly juxtaposes Metz’s newest endeavours right alongside one of Louis’ seminal Veil paintings in the exhibition ‘Morris Louis/Landon Metz’.

Front and centre is Louis’s iconic 1958 work, Tzadik, with its layers of diluted paint in a palette of moss greens that bleed into tobacco browns and burnt orange. Next to that pivotal work are Metz’s four Untitled paintings, each measuring some six feet in length as well as close to five feet in width.

‘Like Louis, Landon questions the traditional processes, such as brush work, involved in creating a painting,’ says Eric Gleason, the gallery director who co-curated this show with the art critic Alex Bacon. ‘Where he continues to push those boundaries is with regard to the painting versus sculpture categorisation, and the image versus object power struggle,’ he adds.

Rather than turning to highly thinned paint, Metz literally pours acrylic blue dye onto unprimed, unstretched canvases, and in doing so, achieves a sense of stain. ‘The dye literally flows over the canvas and creates a new form,’ he points out. Metz’s Pillar is just that – a freestanding, cube-like sculpture comprised of individual sections also rendered in blue dye against an untreated canvas.

With so much of contemporary art marked by sharp angles and an occasionally day-glo palette, Landon’s work is thrillingly meditative in nature.

artwork saturated paint and amorphous shapes

Metz, a Brooklyn-based contemporary artist, echoes and reinvents the practice established by Louis, which is defined by saturated paint and amorphous shapes. Pictured: one of Metz’s Untitled works on display

(Image credit: press)

Paul Kasmin gallery blue brush painting

‘Like Louis, Landon questions the traditional processes, such as brush work, involved in creating a painting,’ says Eric Gleason, the gallery director who co-curated this show with the art critic Alex Bacon

(Image credit: press)

painting with layers of diluted paint in a palette of moss greens that bleed into tobacco browns and burnt orange

Front and centre is Louis’s iconic 1958 work, Tzadik (pictured), with its layers of diluted paint in a palette of moss greens that bleed into tobacco browns and burnt orange

(Image credit: press)

INFORMATION

’Morris Louis/Landon Metz’ is on view until 9 April. For more information, visit Paul Kasmin Gallery’s website

ADDRESS

Paul Kasmin Gallery
515 West 27th St
New York, NY 10001

VIEW GOOGLE MAPS

Read more
Monica Geller, Ross Geller, Chandler Bing, Phoebe Buffay, Joey Tribbiani, Rachel Green, 2024
Pop culture, nostalgia and familiarity: Sam McKinniss in LA
artist Jake Grewal and painting
'It's a metaphor for life': rising star and 'Queer' poster artist Jake Grewal on his new London exhibition
New York art exhibitions Unattended Baggage (Perfect Lovers)2024; timers, motion sensors, pillows, hair$8,000Portrayed as a diptych, and equipped with motion sensors, the timers on these pillows hold arecord of the last time the objects were touched or moved.
New York art exhibitions to see in March
stills of people in a film
'I don’t want to see culture always falling for formulas': inside Doug Aitken's ambitious cinematic installation in LA
Colourful Day-Glo furniture by Dan Friedman
New Superhouse show captures the rebellious spirit of Dan Friedman’s Manhattan apartment
Girls on Bikes (Sarf Coastin’), by Elaine Constantine, styled by Polly Banks, December 1997, © Elaine Constantine.
London art exhibitions to see in March
Latest in Exhibitions & Shows
frida kahlo
A major Frida Kahlo exhibition is coming to the Tate Modern next year
art works
Don’t miss these five artists at Art Basel Hong Kong
ai weiwei
Ai Weiwei's major retrospective in Seattle is a timely and provocative exploration of human rights
grayson perry
A portrait of the artist: Sotheby’s puts Grayson Perry in the spotlight
desert
Desert X 2025 review: a new American dream grows in the Coachella Valley
cowboy
Cowboys and Queens: Jane Hilton's celebration of culture on the fringes
Latest in Feature
black and white image of kitchen
‘La Cocina’: the kitchen is a chaotic melting pot of contemporary culture in Alonso Ruizpalacios’ new film
lean lui guide to hong kong
A local’s guide to Hong Kong, by photographer Lean Lui
people at watch show
What can we expect from Watches and Wonders 2025?
Perfume Genius Glory album artwork
Inside the visual universe of Perfume Genius
art works
Don’t miss these five artists at Art Basel Hong Kong
best hotels hong kong
Where to stay in Hong Kong