Moten, The Case of Blackness

Meanwhile, Reinhardt sees black as a kind of nega­tion even of Mondrianic color, of a cer­tain Mondrianic urban vic­to­ry. Like all the most pro­found nega­tions, his is appo­si­tio­nal. This is to say that in the end the black pain­tings stand along­side Mondrian’s late work and stand as late work in the pri­vate and social senses of late­ness. Insofar as bla­ck­ness is unders­tood as the absence and nega­tion of color, of a kind of social color and social music, Reinhardt will have had no music playing, or played as he pain­ted, or as you behold—neither Ammons’s strong left hand or Taylor’s explo­ded and explo­ding one. But bla­ck­ness is not the absence of color.”