Several controlling metaphors dominate these basic formal elements including solar metaphors, musical metaphors, and metaphors related to site, place, or target. But as indicated by several titles assigned to the paintings of interlocking V-shaped, triangular bands of color that belong to his iconic Chevron series, Noland had not completely suppressed a desire to connect to us through his personal thoughts and reflections despite the absolute, non-objective geometry of his art. Unveiled shortly after the death of his friend Morris Louis in September 1962, works such as Trans Flux, Flush, Bridge, Across, Another World, Dusk and Passage, connect us to Noland’s reflections on loss and mortality. Independent of that context, Passage provides a fantastic demonstration of Noland’s canny mastery of color — three bands of medium-lean, deftly applied acrylic paint placed upon an aubergine background. Spartan in design, yet as rich as it is complex, the composite effect is a dazzling display of hues brought to an engaging, interdependent intensity: a bold chartreuse band on the bottom, a tamped down, tinted sky-blue above, and an ameliorating narrow ochre band sandwiched between the two. The earliest Chevron canvases are of a squarish format, but here, the proportions are necessarily elongated to accommodate this oddly compelling, side-by-side conjoined arrangement. That composition and structure is verily unique among the series, but traditional in one sense. The upward thrust and perfect symmetry of the center chevron is the inverted ‘V’ commonly associated with the truest orientation of a chevron. Regardless, Passage is a deeply personal creation, extraordinarily generous in scale at almost six by twelve feet and it has a bracing effect upon viewing. Its conjoined arrangement is effectively a ‘double u’, its crisp lines origami-like in structure, its metaphorical nature suggesting a wave, or a bird in flight and by extension, it presents as a redoubt of a man’s faith in, or perhaps his hope for, a transcendent life beyond this corporeal existence.