Altoon Sultan blogs about a recent exhibition of works by Ad Reinhardt at David Zwirner Gallery, New York.

Sultan writes that the exhibition demonstrated "the range of Reinhardt's output, his piercing intelligence, and his sharp eye… Thirteen of [of Reinhardt's 'Black Paintings'] are gathered in this one room of the gallery, skylit so you can look at them in natural light. You can't just glance at these paintings, you have to spend a long time quietly looking at them in order to see what is there. In a way, this is Reinhardt's most subversive achievement, much more than any of his barbed cartoons: he forces us to slow down, to contemplate, to have a visual experience of the highest order, one of experience and discovery; for me there was a kind of longing, a search for pure essence."