Untitled (Orange Allover)
1958
This untitled work from the late 1950s to early 1960s exemplifies Color Field painting through its commanding use of orange across the entire canvas surface. Mehring employs Magna paint to create an allover composition that emphasizes chromatic intensity and visual immersion. The saturated orange tone dominates the picture plane without traditional focal points or hierarchical compositions. This approach reflects the abstract expressionist interest in pure color and the viewer's direct engagement with the work. The painting demonstrates the artist's exploration of color as the primary subject matter rather than representation or gesture.
- Medium
- Magna on canvas
- Image
- Framed
- Spotted At
- Gallery · Emily Friedman Fine Art
Notes
From Emily Friedman Fine Art 'Works under 20K' catalog.
More by Howard Mehring
Artists in conversation
Morris Louis
American · b. 1912
Louis was Mehring's direct contemporary in the Washington Color School and similarly used Magna paint on large canvases to create allover chromatic fields that prioritize pure color saturation and visual immersion over representational content or hierarchical composition.
Kenneth Noland
American · b. 1924
Noland worked alongside Mehring in the Washington Color School using Magna and acrylic to achieve intense chromatic saturation across the canvas surface, sharing the same commitment to bold singular color fields and non representational abstraction rooted in mid century American painting.
Ellsworth Kelly
American · b. 1923
Kelly's monochromatic panel paintings from the same late 1950s period employ a single saturated color flooding the entire canvas without focal points or compositional hierarchy, closely mirroring the chromatic intensity and allover visual immersion of Mehring's orange canvas.
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