The strikingly colored flat fields and compressed space of Clyfford Still’s surfaces are a landmark achievement of the Abstract Expressionist movement in the United States, which is characterized by its feverish pursuit of spiritual and personal expression. Using palette knives instead of brushes to apply thick layers of oil paint on a massive and soaring scale, Still imbued his paintings with a feeling of the sublime.

For this immersive painting, Clyfford Still applied paint directly to an untreated canvas with a palette knife, extending the ragged shapes that he called “lifelines” all the way to the work’s edges. The artist disliked frames, which he felt interrupt the illusion that the planes and ribbons of color continue to infinity. Still avoided the commercial art market for much of his career and preferred his work to be shown separately from other artists, making this painting a rare example of a lone work by Still in a public museum.

Wall label, 2021.