American painter and writer, Reinhardt gained recognition mainly for his work as an abstract painter and his strong contribution to Minimalism. Between 1931 and 1935, he studied Literature and History of Art at Columbia University in New York. Under the influence of one of his teachers, Meyer Schapiro, he became involved in what were considered radical politics. His decision to become an artist was reinforced during his university years, but his artistic education was only developed some years later at the National Academy of Design and the American Artists School (1936-37). In 1937, he became a member of the American Abstract Artists (AAA) and affiliated himself to the Artists Union and the American Artists Congress, through which he met Stuart Davis whose work was a great source of inspiration. Between 1936 and 1941, he was one of the few abstract artists employed by the Easel Division of the Works Progress Administration's Federal Art Project (WPA/FAP). In 1941, he began a period of commercial and industrial work as well as graphic design. Between 1942 and 1947, he was a reporter on the vanguard paper PM and, in 1943 and 1944, held his first one-man shows which immediately established him in the art world. In 1946, he joined the Betty Parsons Gallery where he remained for the rest of his life. In his final works, Reinhardt fused his art and aesthetic, concentrating the view of the observer on graduations of colour so subtle that they were almost impossible to see. In 1955, he held his first Black Paintings exhibition and, after 1960, he exclusively painted black paintings all of the same size. In the 60s and 70s, his initial identification with the New York school was challenged by the crucial role he undertook as a precursor of Minimalism and Conceptual Art. In a logical continuation of the abstract style of painting, and using a reduced palette, he sought a purist art exemplified by his black paintings.
