“A Japanese-born American abstract painter with ties to the Color Field movement and Lyrical abstraction.”
—Estate of Kikuo Saito
SAM FRANCIS
“Painting is about the beauty of space and the power of containment.”
— Sam Francis
ROBERT MOTHERWELL
“Art is much less important than life, but what a poor life without it.”
— Robert Motherwell
RICHARD DIEBENKORN
"It is not a matter of painting life. It's a matter of giving life to a painting."
— Richard Diebenkorn
JIM DINE
"For me, drawing is everything, because it informs everything."
— Jim Dine
PAUL JENKINS
“I try to paint like a crapshooter throwing dice, utilizing past experience and my knowledge of the odds. It's a big gamble, and that's why I love it.”
— Paul Jenkins
FRIEDEL DZUBAS
“Let color speak as directly as possible”
— Friedel Dzubas
LARRY POONS
“There are people who don't respond to color. That's what painting is. It's color”
— Larry Poons
CLEVE GRAY
“I think a certain time in your life arrives when you’re so involved with your own work that the outside world drops off”
— Cleve Gray
JULES OLITSKI
“What I would like in my painting is simply a spray of colour that hangs like a cloud, but does not lose its shape.”
— Jules Olitski
HELEN FRANKENTHALER
“There are no rules. That is how art is born, how breakthroughs happen. Go against the rules or ignore the rules. That is what invention is about.”
— Helen Frankenthaler
ADOLPH GOTTLIEB
"When I work, I'm thinking in terms of purely visual effects and relations, and any verbal equivalent is something that comes afterwards."
— Adolph Gottlieb
KENNETH NOLAND
"I think of painting without subject matter as music without words."
— Kenneth Noland
JOHN LITTLE
“I was trying to get away from the drawing, letting form and color carry the idea rather than the line.”
— John Little
HOWARD MEHRING
"I wanted to capture the “floating sensation” of jazz."
— Howard Mehring
AL HELD
“One of the profound powers of the artist is that he can will or choose to become anything he wills or chooses."
— Al Held
EMILY MASON
“My work is really about color relations taking me to a place I haven't yet been. It's like opening doors.”
— Emily Mason
VIVIAN SPRINGFORD
“Painting is my attempt to identify with the universal whole”
— Vivian Springford
HAJIME KATO
“I am an artist who draws light and wind”
— Hajime Kato
JOAN MITCHELL
“When I am working, I am only aware of the canvas and what it tells me to do. I am certainly not aware of myself. Painting is a way of forgetting oneself.”
— Joan Mitchell
GRACE HARTIGAN
"I cannot expect even my own art to provide all of the answers, only to hope it keeps asking the right questions.”
— Garce Hartigan
THOMAS DOWNING
"The way a dot would isolate an instant of color and repeat it over a broad field gave the equivalent of an electric charge the surface would pulse and come alive.”
— Thomas Downing
ESTEBAN VICENTE
"For me, color resolves itself in light. I don't see that it can be any other way. A color, in order to exist, has to generate the sensation of light, which is really the vibration of sunlight."