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クリフォード・スティル(1904-1980)

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<div><font face=Lato size=3 color=black>Clyfford Still occupies a monumental position in the history of modern art, often heralded as the earliest pure abstract painter to work on an expansive scale. By the early 1940s, Still had already arrived at a radically abstract visual language that transcended the aesthetic frameworks of his peers, rejecting representational imagery and producing canvases that were immense in size and conceptual ambition. Pollock famously confessed that “Still makes the rest of us look academic,” and Rothko once kept a Still painting in his bedroom as a guiding inspiration. His work was, as critic Clement Greenberg remarked, “estranging and upsetting” in its genuine originality, a raw and elemental confrontation of form and color that defied conventional expectations.<br><br></font></div><br><br><div><font face=Lato size=3 color=black>For viewers familiar with Still’s oeuvre, his paintings typically evoke a powerful physicality: vast canvases covered in richly textured layers of pigment—earthy blacks, ochres, siennas, and cadmiums—applied with a trowel-like rigor that recalls weathered geological formations. These thickly encrusted surfaces often alternate with more thinly painted passages, all juxtaposed against large swaths of bare canvas that lend his compositions a sense of immense scale and open-ended possibility. This aesthetic, rooted in the grandeur of raw and elemental presence, often manifests as jagged, opaque forms whose stark contrasts convey a primal energy.<br><br></font></div><br><br><div><font face=Lato size=3 color=black><em>“PH-589”,</em> on the other hand, marks a transition in Still’s career, where his already profound engagement with abstraction began to evolve toward greater spareness and a deeper exploration of the expressive potential of voids and open space. Painted in 1959, the expected density of his earlier surfaces gives way to a lighter touch and a more restrained use of paint. Against largely unpainted ground, two jagged shapes of continental significance hang suspended, their edges torn and irregular, as if wrested from the canvas itself. The bare canvas, which had served as a compositional counterpoint in Still’s earlier works, now asserts itself as a dominant feature, heightening the power of the painted forms while introducing an ethereal sense of light and space.<br><br></font></div><br><br><div><font face=Lato size=3 color=black>This shift was both aesthetic and philosophical. By the late 1950s, Still had grown increasingly disenchanted with the art world, distancing himself from its commercial and critical structures<em>. “PH-589”</em> is an anticipatory event before his move to rural Maryland in 1961 that coincided with a period of introspection and formal refinement when Still began to strip his compositions down to their essential elements. As Still explained, he sought to fuse color, texture, and form into “a living spirit,” transcending their materiality to evoke the human capacity for transcendence.</font></div><br><br><div><font face=Lato size=3 color=black><br><br>This painting signals the burgeoning openness of Still’s later works, where the interplay of painted forms and unpainted ground would become a defining characteristic. By the 1960s and 1970s, Still’s palette grew lighter, his gestures sparser, and his use of emptiness more deliberate, creating compositions that were at once monumental and ephemeral. Yet the seeds of that evolution are already present here in the restrained yet powerful interplay of color and space. His revolutionary approach to abstraction—both in scale and in spirit—provided a foundation upon which the Abstract Expressionists built their legacy. At the same time, his work resists easy interpretation, demanding instead an unmediated confrontation with its raw, elemental presence. With its terse eloquence and rhythmic vitality, this painting is both a culmination of Still’s early achievements and a momentous portent of his later innovations.</font></div> <div><font face=Lato size=3 color=black>Clyfford Still occupies a monumental position in the history of modern art, often heralded as the earliest pure abstract painter to work on an expansive scale. By the early 1940s, Still had already arrived at a radically abstract visual language that transcended the aesthetic frameworks of his peers, rejecting representational imagery and producing canvases that were immense in size and conceptual ambition. Pollock famously confessed that “Still makes the rest of us look academic,” and Rothko once kept a Still painting in his bedroom as a guiding inspiration. His work was, as critic Clement Greenberg remarked, “estranging and upsetting” in its genuine originality, a raw and elemental confrontation of form and color that defied conventional expectations.<br><br></font></div><br><br><div><font face=Lato size=3 color=black>For viewers familiar with Still’s oeuvre, his paintings typically evoke a powerful physicality: vast canvases covered in richly textured layers of pigment—earthy blacks, ochres, siennas, and cadmiums—applied with a trowel-like rigor that recalls weathered geological formations. These thickly encrusted surfaces often alternate with more thinly painted passages, all juxtaposed against large swaths of bare canvas that lend his compositions a sense of immense scale and open-ended possibility. This aesthetic, rooted in the grandeur of raw and elemental presence, often manifests as jagged, opaque forms whose stark contrasts convey a primal energy.<br><br></font></div><br><br><div><font face=Lato size=3 color=black><em>“PH-589”,</em> on the other hand, marks a transition in Still’s career, where his already profound engagement with abstraction began to evolve toward greater spareness and a deeper exploration of the expressive potential of voids and open space. Painted in 1959, the expected density of his earlier surfaces gives way to a lighter touch and a more restrained use of paint. Against largely unpainted ground, two jagged shapes of continental significance hang suspended, their edges torn and irregular, as if wrested from the canvas itself. The bare canvas, which had served as a compositional counterpoint in Still’s earlier works, now asserts itself as a dominant feature, heightening the power of the painted forms while introducing an ethereal sense of light and space.<br><br></font></div><br><br><div><font face=Lato size=3 color=black>This shift was both aesthetic and philosophical. By the late 1950s, Still had grown increasingly disenchanted with the art world, distancing himself from its commercial and critical structures<em>. “PH-589”</em> is an anticipatory event before his move to rural Maryland in 1961 that coincided with a period of introspection and formal refinement when Still began to strip his compositions down to their essential elements. As Still explained, he sought to fuse color, texture, and form into “a living spirit,” transcending their materiality to evoke the human capacity for transcendence.</font></div><br><br><div><font face=Lato size=3 color=black><br><br>This painting signals the burgeoning openness of Still’s later works, where the interplay of painted forms and unpainted ground would become a defining characteristic. By the 1960s and 1970s, Still’s palette grew lighter, his gestures sparser, and his use of emptiness more deliberate, creating compositions that were at once monumental and ephemeral. Yet the seeds of that evolution are already present here in the restrained yet powerful interplay of color and space. His revolutionary approach to abstraction—both in scale and in spirit—provided a foundation upon which the Abstract Expressionists built their legacy. At the same time, his work resists easy interpretation, demanding instead an unmediated confrontation with its raw, elemental presence. With its terse eloquence and rhythmic vitality, this painting is both a culmination of Still’s early achievements and a momentous portent of his later innovations.</font></div> <div><font face=Lato size=3 color=black>Clyfford Still occupies a monumental position in the history of modern art, often heralded as the earliest pure abstract painter to work on an expansive scale. By the early 1940s, Still had already arrived at a radically abstract visual language that transcended the aesthetic frameworks of his peers, rejecting representational imagery and producing canvases that were immense in size and conceptual ambition. Pollock famously confessed that “Still makes the rest of us look academic,” and Rothko once kept a Still painting in his bedroom as a guiding inspiration. His work was, as critic Clement Greenberg remarked, “estranging and upsetting” in its genuine originality, a raw and elemental confrontation of form and color that defied conventional expectations.<br><br></font></div><br><br><div><font face=Lato size=3 color=black>For viewers familiar with Still’s oeuvre, his paintings typically evoke a powerful physicality: vast canvases covered in richly textured layers of pigment—earthy blacks, ochres, siennas, and cadmiums—applied with a trowel-like rigor that recalls weathered geological formations. These thickly encrusted surfaces often alternate with more thinly painted passages, all juxtaposed against large swaths of bare canvas that lend his compositions a sense of immense scale and open-ended possibility. This aesthetic, rooted in the grandeur of raw and elemental presence, often manifests as jagged, opaque forms whose stark contrasts convey a primal energy.<br><br></font></div><br><br><div><font face=Lato size=3 color=black><em>“PH-589”,</em> on the other hand, marks a transition in Still’s career, where his already profound engagement with abstraction began to evolve toward greater spareness and a deeper exploration of the expressive potential of voids and open space. Painted in 1959, the expected density of his earlier surfaces gives way to a lighter touch and a more restrained use of paint. Against largely unpainted ground, two jagged shapes of continental significance hang suspended, their edges torn and irregular, as if wrested from the canvas itself. The bare canvas, which had served as a compositional counterpoint in Still’s earlier works, now asserts itself as a dominant feature, heightening the power of the painted forms while introducing an ethereal sense of light and space.<br><br></font></div><br><br><div><font face=Lato size=3 color=black>This shift was both aesthetic and philosophical. By the late 1950s, Still had grown increasingly disenchanted with the art world, distancing himself from its commercial and critical structures<em>. “PH-589”</em> is an anticipatory event before his move to rural Maryland in 1961 that coincided with a period of introspection and formal refinement when Still began to strip his compositions down to their essential elements. As Still explained, he sought to fuse color, texture, and form into “a living spirit,” transcending their materiality to evoke the human capacity for transcendence.</font></div><br><br><div><font face=Lato size=3 color=black><br><br>This painting signals the burgeoning openness of Still’s later works, where the interplay of painted forms and unpainted ground would become a defining characteristic. By the 1960s and 1970s, Still’s palette grew lighter, his gestures sparser, and his use of emptiness more deliberate, creating compositions that were at once monumental and ephemeral. Yet the seeds of that evolution are already present here in the restrained yet powerful interplay of color and space. His revolutionary approach to abstraction—both in scale and in spirit—provided a foundation upon which the Abstract Expressionists built their legacy. At the same time, his work resists easy interpretation, demanding instead an unmediated confrontation with its raw, elemental presence. With its terse eloquence and rhythmic vitality, this painting is both a culmination of Still’s early achievements and a momentous portent of his later innovations.</font></div> <div><font face=Lato size=3 color=black>Clyfford Still occupies a monumental position in the history of modern art, often heralded as the earliest pure abstract painter to work on an expansive scale. By the early 1940s, Still had already arrived at a radically abstract visual language that transcended the aesthetic frameworks of his peers, rejecting representational imagery and producing canvases that were immense in size and conceptual ambition. Pollock famously confessed that “Still makes the rest of us look academic,” and Rothko once kept a Still painting in his bedroom as a guiding inspiration. His work was, as critic Clement Greenberg remarked, “estranging and upsetting” in its genuine originality, a raw and elemental confrontation of form and color that defied conventional expectations.<br><br></font></div><br><br><div><font face=Lato size=3 color=black>For viewers familiar with Still’s oeuvre, his paintings typically evoke a powerful physicality: vast canvases covered in richly textured layers of pigment—earthy blacks, ochres, siennas, and cadmiums—applied with a trowel-like rigor that recalls weathered geological formations. These thickly encrusted surfaces often alternate with more thinly painted passages, all juxtaposed against large swaths of bare canvas that lend his compositions a sense of immense scale and open-ended possibility. This aesthetic, rooted in the grandeur of raw and elemental presence, often manifests as jagged, opaque forms whose stark contrasts convey a primal energy.<br><br></font></div><br><br><div><font face=Lato size=3 color=black><em>“PH-589”,</em> on the other hand, marks a transition in Still’s career, where his already profound engagement with abstraction began to evolve toward greater spareness and a deeper exploration of the expressive potential of voids and open space. Painted in 1959, the expected density of his earlier surfaces gives way to a lighter touch and a more restrained use of paint. Against largely unpainted ground, two jagged shapes of continental significance hang suspended, their edges torn and irregular, as if wrested from the canvas itself. The bare canvas, which had served as a compositional counterpoint in Still’s earlier works, now asserts itself as a dominant feature, heightening the power of the painted forms while introducing an ethereal sense of light and space.<br><br></font></div><br><br><div><font face=Lato size=3 color=black>This shift was both aesthetic and philosophical. By the late 1950s, Still had grown increasingly disenchanted with the art world, distancing himself from its commercial and critical structures<em>. “PH-589”</em> is an anticipatory event before his move to rural Maryland in 1961 that coincided with a period of introspection and formal refinement when Still began to strip his compositions down to their essential elements. As Still explained, he sought to fuse color, texture, and form into “a living spirit,” transcending their materiality to evoke the human capacity for transcendence.</font></div><br><br><div><font face=Lato size=3 color=black><br><br>This painting signals the burgeoning openness of Still’s later works, where the interplay of painted forms and unpainted ground would become a defining characteristic. By the 1960s and 1970s, Still’s palette grew lighter, his gestures sparser, and his use of emptiness more deliberate, creating compositions that were at once monumental and ephemeral. Yet the seeds of that evolution are already present here in the restrained yet powerful interplay of color and space. His revolutionary approach to abstraction—both in scale and in spirit—provided a foundation upon which the Abstract Expressionists built their legacy. At the same time, his work resists easy interpretation, demanding instead an unmediated confrontation with its raw, elemental presence. With its terse eloquence and rhythmic vitality, this painting is both a culmination of Still’s early achievements and a momentous portent of his later innovations.</font></div> <div><font face=Lato size=3 color=black>Clyfford Still occupies a monumental position in the history of modern art, often heralded as the earliest pure abstract painter to work on an expansive scale. By the early 1940s, Still had already arrived at a radically abstract visual language that transcended the aesthetic frameworks of his peers, rejecting representational imagery and producing canvases that were immense in size and conceptual ambition. Pollock famously confessed that “Still makes the rest of us look academic,” and Rothko once kept a Still painting in his bedroom as a guiding inspiration. His work was, as critic Clement Greenberg remarked, “estranging and upsetting” in its genuine originality, a raw and elemental confrontation of form and color that defied conventional expectations.<br><br></font></div><br><br><div><font face=Lato size=3 color=black>For viewers familiar with Still’s oeuvre, his paintings typically evoke a powerful physicality: vast canvases covered in richly textured layers of pigment—earthy blacks, ochres, siennas, and cadmiums—applied with a trowel-like rigor that recalls weathered geological formations. These thickly encrusted surfaces often alternate with more thinly painted passages, all juxtaposed against large swaths of bare canvas that lend his compositions a sense of immense scale and open-ended possibility. This aesthetic, rooted in the grandeur of raw and elemental presence, often manifests as jagged, opaque forms whose stark contrasts convey a primal energy.<br><br></font></div><br><br><div><font face=Lato size=3 color=black><em>“PH-589”,</em> on the other hand, marks a transition in Still’s career, where his already profound engagement with abstraction began to evolve toward greater spareness and a deeper exploration of the expressive potential of voids and open space. Painted in 1959, the expected density of his earlier surfaces gives way to a lighter touch and a more restrained use of paint. Against largely unpainted ground, two jagged shapes of continental significance hang suspended, their edges torn and irregular, as if wrested from the canvas itself. The bare canvas, which had served as a compositional counterpoint in Still’s earlier works, now asserts itself as a dominant feature, heightening the power of the painted forms while introducing an ethereal sense of light and space.<br><br></font></div><br><br><div><font face=Lato size=3 color=black>This shift was both aesthetic and philosophical. By the late 1950s, Still had grown increasingly disenchanted with the art world, distancing himself from its commercial and critical structures<em>. “PH-589”</em> is an anticipatory event before his move to rural Maryland in 1961 that coincided with a period of introspection and formal refinement when Still began to strip his compositions down to their essential elements. As Still explained, he sought to fuse color, texture, and form into “a living spirit,” transcending their materiality to evoke the human capacity for transcendence.</font></div><br><br><div><font face=Lato size=3 color=black><br><br>This painting signals the burgeoning openness of Still’s later works, where the interplay of painted forms and unpainted ground would become a defining characteristic. By the 1960s and 1970s, Still’s palette grew lighter, his gestures sparser, and his use of emptiness more deliberate, creating compositions that were at once monumental and ephemeral. Yet the seeds of that evolution are already present here in the restrained yet powerful interplay of color and space. His revolutionary approach to abstraction—both in scale and in spirit—provided a foundation upon which the Abstract Expressionists built their legacy. At the same time, his work resists easy interpretation, demanding instead an unmediated confrontation with its raw, elemental presence. With its terse eloquence and rhythmic vitality, this painting is both a culmination of Still’s early achievements and a momentous portent of his later innovations.</font></div> <div><font face=Lato size=3 color=black>Clyfford Still occupies a monumental position in the history of modern art, often heralded as the earliest pure abstract painter to work on an expansive scale. By the early 1940s, Still had already arrived at a radically abstract visual language that transcended the aesthetic frameworks of his peers, rejecting representational imagery and producing canvases that were immense in size and conceptual ambition. Pollock famously confessed that “Still makes the rest of us look academic,” and Rothko once kept a Still painting in his bedroom as a guiding inspiration. His work was, as critic Clement Greenberg remarked, “estranging and upsetting” in its genuine originality, a raw and elemental confrontation of form and color that defied conventional expectations.<br><br></font></div><br><br><div><font face=Lato size=3 color=black>For viewers familiar with Still’s oeuvre, his paintings typically evoke a powerful physicality: vast canvases covered in richly textured layers of pigment—earthy blacks, ochres, siennas, and cadmiums—applied with a trowel-like rigor that recalls weathered geological formations. These thickly encrusted surfaces often alternate with more thinly painted passages, all juxtaposed against large swaths of bare canvas that lend his compositions a sense of immense scale and open-ended possibility. This aesthetic, rooted in the grandeur of raw and elemental presence, often manifests as jagged, opaque forms whose stark contrasts convey a primal energy.<br><br></font></div><br><br><div><font face=Lato size=3 color=black><em>“PH-589”,</em> on the other hand, marks a transition in Still’s career, where his already profound engagement with abstraction began to evolve toward greater spareness and a deeper exploration of the expressive potential of voids and open space. Painted in 1959, the expected density of his earlier surfaces gives way to a lighter touch and a more restrained use of paint. Against largely unpainted ground, two jagged shapes of continental significance hang suspended, their edges torn and irregular, as if wrested from the canvas itself. The bare canvas, which had served as a compositional counterpoint in Still’s earlier works, now asserts itself as a dominant feature, heightening the power of the painted forms while introducing an ethereal sense of light and space.<br><br></font></div><br><br><div><font face=Lato size=3 color=black>This shift was both aesthetic and philosophical. By the late 1950s, Still had grown increasingly disenchanted with the art world, distancing himself from its commercial and critical structures<em>. “PH-589”</em> is an anticipatory event before his move to rural Maryland in 1961 that coincided with a period of introspection and formal refinement when Still began to strip his compositions down to their essential elements. As Still explained, he sought to fuse color, texture, and form into “a living spirit,” transcending their materiality to evoke the human capacity for transcendence.</font></div><br><br><div><font face=Lato size=3 color=black><br><br>This painting signals the burgeoning openness of Still’s later works, where the interplay of painted forms and unpainted ground would become a defining characteristic. By the 1960s and 1970s, Still’s palette grew lighter, his gestures sparser, and his use of emptiness more deliberate, creating compositions that were at once monumental and ephemeral. Yet the seeds of that evolution are already present here in the restrained yet powerful interplay of color and space. His revolutionary approach to abstraction—both in scale and in spirit—provided a foundation upon which the Abstract Expressionists built their legacy. At the same time, his work resists easy interpretation, demanding instead an unmediated confrontation with its raw, elemental presence. With its terse eloquence and rhythmic vitality, this painting is both a culmination of Still’s early achievements and a momentous portent of his later innovations.</font></div> <div><font face=Lato size=3 color=black>Clyfford Still occupies a monumental position in the history of modern art, often heralded as the earliest pure abstract painter to work on an expansive scale. By the early 1940s, Still had already arrived at a radically abstract visual language that transcended the aesthetic frameworks of his peers, rejecting representational imagery and producing canvases that were immense in size and conceptual ambition. Pollock famously confessed that “Still makes the rest of us look academic,” and Rothko once kept a Still painting in his bedroom as a guiding inspiration. His work was, as critic Clement Greenberg remarked, “estranging and upsetting” in its genuine originality, a raw and elemental confrontation of form and color that defied conventional expectations.<br><br></font></div><br><br><div><font face=Lato size=3 color=black>For viewers familiar with Still’s oeuvre, his paintings typically evoke a powerful physicality: vast canvases covered in richly textured layers of pigment—earthy blacks, ochres, siennas, and cadmiums—applied with a trowel-like rigor that recalls weathered geological formations. These thickly encrusted surfaces often alternate with more thinly painted passages, all juxtaposed against large swaths of bare canvas that lend his compositions a sense of immense scale and open-ended possibility. This aesthetic, rooted in the grandeur of raw and elemental presence, often manifests as jagged, opaque forms whose stark contrasts convey a primal energy.<br><br></font></div><br><br><div><font face=Lato size=3 color=black><em>“PH-589”,</em> on the other hand, marks a transition in Still’s career, where his already profound engagement with abstraction began to evolve toward greater spareness and a deeper exploration of the expressive potential of voids and open space. Painted in 1959, the expected density of his earlier surfaces gives way to a lighter touch and a more restrained use of paint. Against largely unpainted ground, two jagged shapes of continental significance hang suspended, their edges torn and irregular, as if wrested from the canvas itself. The bare canvas, which had served as a compositional counterpoint in Still’s earlier works, now asserts itself as a dominant feature, heightening the power of the painted forms while introducing an ethereal sense of light and space.<br><br></font></div><br><br><div><font face=Lato size=3 color=black>This shift was both aesthetic and philosophical. By the late 1950s, Still had grown increasingly disenchanted with the art world, distancing himself from its commercial and critical structures<em>. “PH-589”</em> is an anticipatory event before his move to rural Maryland in 1961 that coincided with a period of introspection and formal refinement when Still began to strip his compositions down to their essential elements. As Still explained, he sought to fuse color, texture, and form into “a living spirit,” transcending their materiality to evoke the human capacity for transcendence.</font></div><br><br><div><font face=Lato size=3 color=black><br><br>This painting signals the burgeoning openness of Still’s later works, where the interplay of painted forms and unpainted ground would become a defining characteristic. By the 1960s and 1970s, Still’s palette grew lighter, his gestures sparser, and his use of emptiness more deliberate, creating compositions that were at once monumental and ephemeral. Yet the seeds of that evolution are already present here in the restrained yet powerful interplay of color and space. His revolutionary approach to abstraction—both in scale and in spirit—provided a foundation upon which the Abstract Expressionists built their legacy. At the same time, his work resists easy interpretation, demanding instead an unmediated confrontation with its raw, elemental presence. With its terse eloquence and rhythmic vitality, this painting is both a culmination of Still’s early achievements and a momentous portent of his later innovations.</font></div> <div><font face=Lato size=3 color=black>Clyfford Still occupies a monumental position in the history of modern art, often heralded as the earliest pure abstract painter to work on an expansive scale. By the early 1940s, Still had already arrived at a radically abstract visual language that transcended the aesthetic frameworks of his peers, rejecting representational imagery and producing canvases that were immense in size and conceptual ambition. Pollock famously confessed that “Still makes the rest of us look academic,” and Rothko once kept a Still painting in his bedroom as a guiding inspiration. His work was, as critic Clement Greenberg remarked, “estranging and upsetting” in its genuine originality, a raw and elemental confrontation of form and color that defied conventional expectations.<br><br></font></div><br><br><div><font face=Lato size=3 color=black>For viewers familiar with Still’s oeuvre, his paintings typically evoke a powerful physicality: vast canvases covered in richly textured layers of pigment—earthy blacks, ochres, siennas, and cadmiums—applied with a trowel-like rigor that recalls weathered geological formations. These thickly encrusted surfaces often alternate with more thinly painted passages, all juxtaposed against large swaths of bare canvas that lend his compositions a sense of immense scale and open-ended possibility. This aesthetic, rooted in the grandeur of raw and elemental presence, often manifests as jagged, opaque forms whose stark contrasts convey a primal energy.<br><br></font></div><br><br><div><font face=Lato size=3 color=black><em>“PH-589”,</em> on the other hand, marks a transition in Still’s career, where his already profound engagement with abstraction began to evolve toward greater spareness and a deeper exploration of the expressive potential of voids and open space. Painted in 1959, the expected density of his earlier surfaces gives way to a lighter touch and a more restrained use of paint. Against largely unpainted ground, two jagged shapes of continental significance hang suspended, their edges torn and irregular, as if wrested from the canvas itself. The bare canvas, which had served as a compositional counterpoint in Still’s earlier works, now asserts itself as a dominant feature, heightening the power of the painted forms while introducing an ethereal sense of light and space.<br><br></font></div><br><br><div><font face=Lato size=3 color=black>This shift was both aesthetic and philosophical. By the late 1950s, Still had grown increasingly disenchanted with the art world, distancing himself from its commercial and critical structures<em>. “PH-589”</em> is an anticipatory event before his move to rural Maryland in 1961 that coincided with a period of introspection and formal refinement when Still began to strip his compositions down to their essential elements. As Still explained, he sought to fuse color, texture, and form into “a living spirit,” transcending their materiality to evoke the human capacity for transcendence.</font></div><br><br><div><font face=Lato size=3 color=black><br><br>This painting signals the burgeoning openness of Still’s later works, where the interplay of painted forms and unpainted ground would become a defining characteristic. By the 1960s and 1970s, Still’s palette grew lighter, his gestures sparser, and his use of emptiness more deliberate, creating compositions that were at once monumental and ephemeral. Yet the seeds of that evolution are already present here in the restrained yet powerful interplay of color and space. His revolutionary approach to abstraction—both in scale and in spirit—provided a foundation upon which the Abstract Expressionists built their legacy. At the same time, his work resists easy interpretation, demanding instead an unmediated confrontation with its raw, elemental presence. With its terse eloquence and rhythmic vitality, this painting is both a culmination of Still’s early achievements and a momentous portent of his later innovations.</font></div> <div><font face=Lato size=3 color=black>Clyfford Still occupies a monumental position in the history of modern art, often heralded as the earliest pure abstract painter to work on an expansive scale. By the early 1940s, Still had already arrived at a radically abstract visual language that transcended the aesthetic frameworks of his peers, rejecting representational imagery and producing canvases that were immense in size and conceptual ambition. Pollock famously confessed that “Still makes the rest of us look academic,” and Rothko once kept a Still painting in his bedroom as a guiding inspiration. His work was, as critic Clement Greenberg remarked, “estranging and upsetting” in its genuine originality, a raw and elemental confrontation of form and color that defied conventional expectations.<br><br></font></div><br><br><div><font face=Lato size=3 color=black>For viewers familiar with Still’s oeuvre, his paintings typically evoke a powerful physicality: vast canvases covered in richly textured layers of pigment—earthy blacks, ochres, siennas, and cadmiums—applied with a trowel-like rigor that recalls weathered geological formations. These thickly encrusted surfaces often alternate with more thinly painted passages, all juxtaposed against large swaths of bare canvas that lend his compositions a sense of immense scale and open-ended possibility. This aesthetic, rooted in the grandeur of raw and elemental presence, often manifests as jagged, opaque forms whose stark contrasts convey a primal energy.<br><br></font></div><br><br><div><font face=Lato size=3 color=black><em>“PH-589”,</em> on the other hand, marks a transition in Still’s career, where his already profound engagement with abstraction began to evolve toward greater spareness and a deeper exploration of the expressive potential of voids and open space. Painted in 1959, the expected density of his earlier surfaces gives way to a lighter touch and a more restrained use of paint. Against largely unpainted ground, two jagged shapes of continental significance hang suspended, their edges torn and irregular, as if wrested from the canvas itself. The bare canvas, which had served as a compositional counterpoint in Still’s earlier works, now asserts itself as a dominant feature, heightening the power of the painted forms while introducing an ethereal sense of light and space.<br><br></font></div><br><br><div><font face=Lato size=3 color=black>This shift was both aesthetic and philosophical. By the late 1950s, Still had grown increasingly disenchanted with the art world, distancing himself from its commercial and critical structures<em>. “PH-589”</em> is an anticipatory event before his move to rural Maryland in 1961 that coincided with a period of introspection and formal refinement when Still began to strip his compositions down to their essential elements. As Still explained, he sought to fuse color, texture, and form into “a living spirit,” transcending their materiality to evoke the human capacity for transcendence.</font></div><br><br><div><font face=Lato size=3 color=black><br><br>This painting signals the burgeoning openness of Still’s later works, where the interplay of painted forms and unpainted ground would become a defining characteristic. By the 1960s and 1970s, Still’s palette grew lighter, his gestures sparser, and his use of emptiness more deliberate, creating compositions that were at once monumental and ephemeral. Yet the seeds of that evolution are already present here in the restrained yet powerful interplay of color and space. His revolutionary approach to abstraction—both in scale and in spirit—provided a foundation upon which the Abstract Expressionists built their legacy. At the same time, his work resists easy interpretation, demanding instead an unmediated confrontation with its raw, elemental presence. With its terse eloquence and rhythmic vitality, this painting is both a culmination of Still’s early achievements and a momentous portent of his later innovations.</font></div> <div><font face=Lato size=3 color=black>Clyfford Still occupies a monumental position in the history of modern art, often heralded as the earliest pure abstract painter to work on an expansive scale. By the early 1940s, Still had already arrived at a radically abstract visual language that transcended the aesthetic frameworks of his peers, rejecting representational imagery and producing canvases that were immense in size and conceptual ambition. Pollock famously confessed that “Still makes the rest of us look academic,” and Rothko once kept a Still painting in his bedroom as a guiding inspiration. His work was, as critic Clement Greenberg remarked, “estranging and upsetting” in its genuine originality, a raw and elemental confrontation of form and color that defied conventional expectations.<br><br></font></div><br><br><div><font face=Lato size=3 color=black>For viewers familiar with Still’s oeuvre, his paintings typically evoke a powerful physicality: vast canvases covered in richly textured layers of pigment—earthy blacks, ochres, siennas, and cadmiums—applied with a trowel-like rigor that recalls weathered geological formations. These thickly encrusted surfaces often alternate with more thinly painted passages, all juxtaposed against large swaths of bare canvas that lend his compositions a sense of immense scale and open-ended possibility. This aesthetic, rooted in the grandeur of raw and elemental presence, often manifests as jagged, opaque forms whose stark contrasts convey a primal energy.<br><br></font></div><br><br><div><font face=Lato size=3 color=black><em>“PH-589”,</em> on the other hand, marks a transition in Still’s career, where his already profound engagement with abstraction began to evolve toward greater spareness and a deeper exploration of the expressive potential of voids and open space. Painted in 1959, the expected density of his earlier surfaces gives way to a lighter touch and a more restrained use of paint. Against largely unpainted ground, two jagged shapes of continental significance hang suspended, their edges torn and irregular, as if wrested from the canvas itself. The bare canvas, which had served as a compositional counterpoint in Still’s earlier works, now asserts itself as a dominant feature, heightening the power of the painted forms while introducing an ethereal sense of light and space.<br><br></font></div><br><br><div><font face=Lato size=3 color=black>This shift was both aesthetic and philosophical. By the late 1950s, Still had grown increasingly disenchanted with the art world, distancing himself from its commercial and critical structures<em>. “PH-589”</em> is an anticipatory event before his move to rural Maryland in 1961 that coincided with a period of introspection and formal refinement when Still began to strip his compositions down to their essential elements. As Still explained, he sought to fuse color, texture, and form into “a living spirit,” transcending their materiality to evoke the human capacity for transcendence.</font></div><br><br><div><font face=Lato size=3 color=black><br><br>This painting signals the burgeoning openness of Still’s later works, where the interplay of painted forms and unpainted ground would become a defining characteristic. By the 1960s and 1970s, Still’s palette grew lighter, his gestures sparser, and his use of emptiness more deliberate, creating compositions that were at once monumental and ephemeral. Yet the seeds of that evolution are already present here in the restrained yet powerful interplay of color and space. His revolutionary approach to abstraction—both in scale and in spirit—provided a foundation upon which the Abstract Expressionists built their legacy. At the same time, his work resists easy interpretation, demanding instead an unmediated confrontation with its raw, elemental presence. With its terse eloquence and rhythmic vitality, this painting is both a culmination of Still’s early achievements and a momentous portent of his later innovations.</font></div>
無題（PH-589）1959114×165インチ（289.56×419.1×5.4cm(289.56 x 419.1 x 5.4 cm)キャンバスに油彩
出所
マールボロ・ギャラリー、画家存命中に落札
クリスティーズ・ニューヨーク2005年5月11日（水） ロット28
プライベート・コレクション
展示会
ニューヨーク、マールボロ・ガーソン・ギャラリー、クリフォード・スティル、1969年10月-11月
ポランコ、現代文化センター、テレビサ文化基金、エスタディエンシー絵画、抽象表現、1996年10月～1997年1月
ワシントンD.C.、ハーシュホーン美術館・彫刻庭園、Clyfford Still: Paintings, 1944-1960, 2001年6月～9月
ミュンヘン、ハイポ・クルトゥルースティフトゥング美術館、モネ展 ...もっとその。。。モダニズム』2001年11月号～2002年3月号
文学
マールボロ・ガーソン・ギャラリー、クリフォード・スティル、ニューヨーク、1969年、p. 62-63, no.32（カラー図版）
グレース・グルエック「ニューヨーク・ギャラリー・ノート：クリスマス前月"アート・イン・アメリカ57号、6号、1969年11-12月、154頁
ロバート・ピンカス・ウィッテン、"クライフォード・スティル：マールボロ・ギャラリー"アートフォーラム8号、1970年1月、65-66頁
パトリック・マコーギー「クライフォード・スティルとゴシック的想像力」『アートフォーラム』8号、1970年4月、56-61頁（図版58頁）
フンダシオン・カルチュラル・テレビサ、スペイン絵画、抽象表現、メキシコ、1996年、106号、106-107頁（図版あり）
James Demetrion and Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Clyfford Still: Paintings, 1944-1960, Washington, DC, 2001, no.38（図版）
Karin Sagner, Gottfried Boehm, and John William Gabriel, Monet and Modernism, Munich, 2001, p. 292-293 (図版)
David Anfam and Dean Sobel, Clyfford Still: The Late Works, New York and Denver, 2020, fig. 7, p. 26-27 (illustrated)
...少ない。。。
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「人々は作品そのものを見て、自分にとっての意味を判断すべきだ。私は、私の絵の中に雲の形が見えると思うかもしれない人々の無邪気な反応の方が、（批評家が）私の絵の中に見えると言うものよりも好きだ。- クリフォード・スティル

重要事項

  • PH-589は、スティルのキャリアの変遷を示すものであり、彼の抽象性への深い関与は、空洞とオープンスペースの表現的可能性をより深く追求し、より透明なものへと進化し始めた。

  • PH-589は、1961年にメリーランド州の片田舎に引っ越す前の出来事であり、スティルが作曲を本質的な要素にまで絞り込み始めた内省と形式的洗練の時期と重なる。

  • この絵は、スティルの後期の作品に見られる開放性が急成長していることを示すものであり、描かれた形と描かれていない地面の相互作用が決定的な特徴となる。

  • スティルの作品を手に入れるチャンスは非常に稀で、彼の全作品1,107点のうち59点のみが個人コレクションとなっている。大半は美術館に所蔵されている。

  • コロラド州デンバーにあるクライフォード・スティル美術館は、この画家の作品の95％、3,125点（絵画約830点、紙と彫刻作品2,300点以上）を所蔵している。

  • クリフォード・スティルのオークション記録は全部で69件しかない（うち62件は絵画）。2020年以降、スティルの絵画は7回しかオークションに出品されていない。これほど大きなスティルの絵画がオークションに出品されたことはない。

歴史

  • クライフォード静止画
    クライフォード・スティルの肖像、1961-1962年頃。サンドラ・スティル撮影。

クリフォード・スティルは、近代美術史の中で記念碑的な位置を占めており、しばしば、広大なスケールで作品を制作した最も初期の純粋抽象画家と謳われている。1940年代初頭までに、スティルはすでに同世代の画家たちの美的枠組みを超越した、根本的に抽象的な視覚言語に到達しており、具象的なイメージを否定し、巨大なサイズと概念的野心に満ちたキャンバスを制作していた。ポロックが「スティルは他の連中をアカデミックに見せる」と告白したのは有名な話であり、ロスコはインスピレーションを導くものとしてスティルの絵を寝室に飾っていたこともある。批評家クレメント・グリーンバーグがこう評したように、彼の作品は、その真の独創性、従来の予想を裏切る形と色彩の生々しく本質的な対決において、「よそよそしく、動揺させる」ものであった。

風化した地層を思わせるような鏝（こて）のような厳しさで塗られた、土気色の黒、黄土色、シエナ色、カドミウム色などの顔料の豊かな質感の層で覆われた広大なキャンバス。これらの厚くちりばめられた表面は、しばしば薄く塗られた部分と交互に現れ、広大なキャンバスと並置されることで、彼のコンポジションに巨大なスケール感と開放的な可能性を与えている。この美学は、原始的な存在の壮大さに根ざしており、しばしばギザギザした不透明なフォルムとして現れ、その激しいコントラストが原始的なエネルギーを伝えている。

一方、「PH-589」はスティルのキャリアの変遷を示すもので、すでに深く取り組んでいた抽象表現が、より簡潔な表現へと進化し、空洞やオープンスペースの表現可能性をより深く探求するようになった。1959年に描かれたこの作品では、以前の作品に見られるような濃密な表面から、より軽やかなタッチと、より抑制された絵具の使用へと変化している。ほとんど何も描かれていない地に、大陸的な意味を持つ2つのギザギザの形が、まるでキャンバスそのものからもぎ取ったかのように、縁が引き裂かれ、不規則に吊り下げられている。スティルの以前の作品では、構図の対位法として機能していた裸のキャンバスが、今では支配的な特徴として主張し、光と空間の幽玄な感覚を導入しながら、描かれた形の力を高めている。

Still-47012-luxury-room-1
アトリエで作業するクライフォード・スティル
アトリエで作業するクライフォード・スティル

この変化は、美学的であると同時に哲学的なものであった。1950年代後半になると、スティルは美術界にますます幻滅し、その商業的・批評的構造から距離を置くようになっていた。PH-589」は、1961年にメリーランド州の片田舎に引っ越す前の出来事であり、スティルが構図を本質的な要素にまで落とし込み始めた内省と形式的洗練の時期と重なる。スティルの説明によれば、彼は色、テクスチャー、形を「生きた精神」に融合させ、物質性を超越して人間の超越能力を呼び起こそうとしたのである。

この絵画は、スティルの後期の作品に見られる開放性が急成長していることを示すもので、描かれた形と描かれていない地面の相互作用が決定的な特徴となる。1960年代から1970年代にかけて、スティルのパレットはより淡くなり、身振りはよりまばらになり、空虚さをより意図的に用いるようになり、記念碑的であると同時に儚い構図が生まれた。しかし、その進化の萌芽は、抑制されながらも力強い色彩と空間の相互作用の中に、すでにここに存在している。抽象への革命的なアプローチは、そのスケールと精神の両面において、抽象表現主義者たちがその遺産を築き上げる土台となった。同時に、彼の作品は安易な解釈を拒み、その代わりに、生々しく本質的な存在と無媒介に向き合うことを要求する。その簡潔な雄弁さとリズミカルな活力によって、この絵画はスティルの初期の業績の集大成であると同時に、その後の革新の重要な前兆でもある。

スティルが「PH-589」を制作してから10年後、この作品はニューヨークのマールボロ・ガーソン・ギャラリーで開催された記念すべき展覧会「クリフォード・スティル展」（1969年11月25日から1970年1月3日まで）で展示された。スティルがニューヨークで公に作品を発表するのは、1952年以来初めてのことだった。この展覧会では、同ギャラリーが購入した大規模な作品群の中から、絵画と紙による作品が展示された。1970年、Artforum誌は美術評論家パトリック・マコーヘイによる広範かつ洞察に満ちた展覧会評を掲載し、展示された数十点の絵画を通してスティルと「ゴシック思想」との関係をたどった。

Artforum』誌の展覧会レビュー（1970年
Artforum』誌の展覧会レビュー（1970年
「色彩は構想に不可欠な要素である。作品は色彩で発想され、色彩なしには十分に存在しない。 それぞれの絵は、それが要求する色彩を帯びている"- クリフォード・スティル

オークション・トップ

キャンバスに油彩、93 x 79インチサザビーズ・ニューヨークにて販売：2011年11月

"1949-A-No.1"（1949年）は61,682,500米ドルで落札された。

キャンバスに油彩、93 x 79インチサザビーズ・ニューヨークにて販売：2011年11月
キャンバスに油彩、69 1/2 x 59 in.サザビーズ・ニューヨークにて販売：2011年11月

"1947-Y-No.2"（1947年）は31,442,500米ドルで落札された。

キャンバスに油彩、69 1/2 x 59 in.サザビーズ・ニューヨークにて販売：2011年11月
キャンバスに油彩、73 7/8 x 68 in.サザビーズ・ニューヨークにて販売：2021年5月

「PH-125」（1948年）は30,712,500米ドルで落札された。

キャンバスに油彩、73 7/8 x 68 in.サザビーズ・ニューヨークにて販売：2021年5月
キャンバスに油彩、68 1/2 x 59 in.サザビーズ・ニューヨークにて販売：2020年6月

「PH-144」（1919年）は28,739,000米ドルで落札された。

キャンバスに油彩、68 1/2 x 59 in.サザビーズ・ニューヨークにて販売：2020年6月

美術館所蔵の類似絵画

Clyfford Still, "PH-1029", 1958, キャンバスに油彩, 79 3/4 x 69 1/8 in.

クリフォード・スティル美術館（コロラド州デンバー

Clyfford Still, "PH-1029", 1958, キャンバスに油彩, 79 3/4 x 69 1/8 in.
クリフォード・スティル《1962年4月》1962年、キャンバスに油彩、113×158インチ。

バッファローAKG美術館（ニューヨーク州バッファロー

クリフォード・スティル《1962年4月》1962年、キャンバスに油彩、113×158インチ。
クリフォード・スティル《PH-919》1974年、キャンバスに油彩、111 7/8 x 174 1/4。

サンフランシスコ近代美術館

クリフォード・スティル《PH-919》1974年、キャンバスに油彩、111 7/8 x 174 1/4。
クリフォード・スティル《無題》1965年、キャンバスに油彩、107 5/8 x 92インチ。

メトロポリタン美術館

クリフォード・スティル《無題》1965年、キャンバスに油彩、107 5/8 x 92インチ。
「1941年までには、私のキャンバスの中の空間と人物は総合的な精神的存在に分解され、それぞれの限界から私を解放し、エネルギーと直感の限界だけに縛られた道具に融合していた。私の自由への感覚は、今や絶対的なものであり、限りなく爽快なものであった。"- クライフォード・スティル

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