Installation view of Grade in Kenneth Noland, Leo Castelli Gallery, New York, 1979. Photo courtesy of Castelli Gallery.
“All great paintings are sculptures—there's so much of the actualness about it that a great painting forces you into a visual, physical movement of yourself. That's what determines the way you experience a painting kinetically. You move closer, you sight down it, you tilt your head, you step back, you feel as though you are in it. That being in it is just as important as looking from a distance.”
Kenneth Noland, as quoted in "Conversation with Karen Wilkin," in Kenneth Noland, Karen Wilkin, Ediciones Poligrafa, Barcelona, 1990, p. 10

Kenneth Noland in his studio, in front of Diamond-Shape Painting 7, 1964. Photo by André Emmerich. Courtesy of André Emmerich Gallery records, circa 1929-2009, and Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. Artwork © 2021 Kenneth Noland