Born in Buffalo, New York, Ad Reinhardt was an early exponent of Minimal Art and a prominent figure in the New York contemporary art scene. His commitment to painting was purely to the process of painting, and he is best remembered for his all-black, large-scale paintings of the 1960s.

Reinhardt has been described as the first important American painter who was an abstractionist from beginning to end. He was known for his humorous, actually hilarious, swipes at the art world such as his dismissal of Thomas Hart Benton as an 'inconsequential ear of corn' and Jackson Pollock as an 'obscure leaf on the tree of art', etc. Not surprisingly, Reinhardt was a controversial figure. Other examples of his making fun of his contemporary artists...