Ad Reinhardt’s oeuvre is one of the most radical positions in American painting. Since 1960, the artist has concentrated exclusively on creating the “last painting.” Reinhardt himself described the roughly fifty Last Paintings in the series as the “heroic, black, square ‘breakthrough’ paintings.” They are all square and have a human scale. They have a velvety, almost bodiless surface and initially appear completely black. Only when viewed for a longer period of time do minimal color differences and shapes become discernible. In order to distinguish the different fields, Reinhardt added chromatic colors to the black. Here, the canvas is divided into three vertical blocks of equal size, on which a similar form is horizontally mounted. In this way, a Greek cross with shanks of equal length is created. Nothing refers to a reality outside painting, but everything refers to its constants: color, form, proportions. The painting was acquired by the Friends from a private American collection in 2012.