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October

1961
Not on view
October belongs to the first of Noland’s two extended explorations of the elemental shape of the circle. Placing the large canvas on his studio’s floor (in knowing emulation of Jackson Pollock’s method), he drew the edge of each circle with a pencil attached to a string and anchored in the center. The canvas’s dimensions determined the size of the outermost circle, suggesting Noland’s preoccupation with proportional relationships, a concern often associated with Minimalism. The painter accentuated the flatness of the unprimed canvas by diluting his acrylic paint so the weave would absorb it (a technique he adopted after seeing Helen Frankenthaler’s stained canvases). The concentric circles evoke a range of associations—a bull’s-eye, a globe, a giant eyeball—while the density near the center suggests a gravitational pull.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: October
  • Artist: Kenneth Noland (American, Asheville, North Carolina 1924–2010 Port Clyde, Maine)
  • Date: 1961
  • Medium: Acrylic on canvas
  • Dimensions: 94 1/4 × 92 1/4 × 1 3/8 in. (239.4 × 234.3 × 3.5 cm)
  • Classification: Paintings
  • Credit Line: The Muriel Kallis Steinberg Newman Collection, Gift of Muriel Kallis Newman, 2006
  • Object Number: 2006.32.48
  • Rights and Reproduction: © Estate of Kenneth Noland
  • Curatorial Department: Modern and Contemporary Art

More Artwork

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Coarse Shadow, Kenneth Noland American, Magna on canvas
Coarse Shadow
Kenneth Noland
1967
Circle I [I-38]
Multiple artists/makers
1978
Untitled, from the "New York Collection for Stockholm" Portfolio
Multiple artists/makers
1973
Via Median, Kenneth Noland American, Magna on canvas
Via Median
Kenneth Noland
1968
Double Turn, Kenneth Noland American, Magna on canvas
Double Turn
Kenneth Noland
1974

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