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APPRECIATING NOLAND

DIAMONDS

A DEVELOPMENT OF the "chevrons," the Diamonds (1964-69) were Noland's first shaped paintings. The interaction of color and layout involved the picture shape itself.

The square diamond format (1964-65) takes the chevron motif into the domain of the shaped picture. In this format the sides of chevrons align with the sides a square picture hung as a diamond. The chevron motif springs into being only when the square canvas is hung this way; as a horizontal square the chevrons are inert, equal-sided "L" shapes. Because external shape and orientation determine the character and expression of depicted shape, this reverses the terms of traditional art. Picture shape had previously been a passive container; in the square diamonds an active shape energizes what would otherwise have been a passive motif.

Although simple in appearance, the narrow diamonds (1966-67) are some of Noland's most brilliant and radical paintings. In effect the square diamond is here squeezed into a narrow, elongated panel. Now, instead of containing an emblematic motif, the painting itself is emblematic.

Instead of chevrons, narrow bands of color align with a parallel pair of sides of a diamond shaped picture. The paintings are often in the proportion of 2 x 8 feet, (in which case called "needle diamonds") but occur in other proportions as well. The tension imposed by parallel diagonal bands recalls the "asymmetrical chevrons," and the dynamic chevron image is implied by the diagonal termination of the bands at the picture edge. (By way of comparison, think how passive are so many geometric band paintings of the '60s.)

In these paintings color, used with the precision of notes in a scale or chord, is often arranged in equal steps from dark to light. This arrangement dissects chiaroscuro, transforming it into measured relations of color. Whereas shading in abstract painting usually punches holes in the picture surface, here eccentric picture shape holds the shading flat.