(Snovsk, Ukraine 1922 – 2007 New York)
New Cale, 1967, titled, signed and dated on the reverse, with arrow, spray painting, acrylic on canvas, 221 x 53 cm, framed

We thank the Jules Olitski Foundation for their help in cataloguing this work.

Provenance:
Kasmin Gallery, Ltd. London, purchased directly from the artist
The Waddington Galleries, London (label on the reverse)
The Greenberg Gallery, St. Louis (label on the reverse),
likely after 1971
Sotheby’s New York, 9 May 1996, lot 185
European Private Collection
the heirs

Exhibited:
Ghent, Galerie Fortlaan 17, without Trembling, 1997
Ghent, Galerie Fortlaan 17, Paintings, 2001

The color cloud suddenly appeared real.... A mist of color had spread itself on part of the canvas. It was ravishing. A new light, a new color; I was Apollo... A world of possibilities had opened. In this manner I covered the canvas.
Jules Olitski

Along with Barnett Newman, Morris Louis, and Kenneth Noland, Olitski is one of the artists recognised by the noted critic Clement Greenberg as the driving force behind Colour Field painting in the 1960s.

Olitski was dedicated to exploring colour throughout his career. He investigated the nature of surface painting and experimented with new materials and techniques in painting. In 1964, whilst teaching at Bennington College in Vermont, Olitski sought a way to capture "nothing but some colours sprayed into the air and staying there." He moved away from the staining technique he had developed for his Core paintings (1959-1964) and experimented with a new form of paint application using a spray gun and a compressor as in the present work.

New Cale is a luminous celebration of colour. The "mist" Olitski describes is captured and applied on the surface of the canvas in thin and light layers while at the lower left edge he uses a heavy impasto to emphasise the ethereal and hazy effect.