colorfield

Color field painting, often referred to as color field or colorfield, is a style of abstract painting that emerged in the 1950s and 1960s in the United States. It emphasizes large, unmodulated areas of color intended to overwhelm or immerse the viewer, with color itself positioned as the primary subject of the work. The movement arose as a reaction against the gestural, emotionally charged brushwork of Abstract Expressionism, aiming for a more restrained, contemplative experience.

Key figures include Mark Rothko, Barnett Newman, Clyfford Still, Helen Frankenthaler, Morris Louis, and Kenneth Noland. Techniques varied: Frankenthaler developed the soak-stain method, allowing thinned pigment to soak into unprimed canvas to create luminous, diffuse fields. Louis and Noland explored decisive, flat color surfaces and edge treatments, while Newman introduced “zips”—vertical or diagonal bands that interrupt otherwise uniform fields. Rothko favored gigantic, soft-edged rectangles that hovered between color and form, inviting a meditative engagement.

Aesthetically, color field painting often features large-scale canvases, minimal or absent brushwork, and an emphasis on color relationships over representational content. The perception of color is central, with painters exploring how hues interact, recede, or glow against one another within a flat plane.

Historically, color field painting developed during the mid-20th century alongside other Post-Painterly Abstraction trends and influenced later Minimalism and contemporary abstract practices. The term and its critical framing are associated with art critics of the period, who described the work as an expansion of color’s expressive potential beyond gesture, making color itself the subject of the painting.