During the 1950s, Robert Irwin began creating gestural, expressionist paintings. However, by the end of the decade, he started to question their relevance, feeling that the works contained too many extraneous or unnecessary elements. Confronting and exploring his doubts, Irwin began to investigate ways in which he could tease out the physical nature of painting in order to offer a more intimate, contemplative experience for the viewer. He set about experimenting with the use of lines, which do not refer to or reference anything other than themselves. Subsequently, he simplified his paintings even further by reducing his composition to only horizontal lines on a single field of color. About this transition in his practice, Irwin once said, “I got into what some referred to as a ‘less is more’ thing, which is not really true at all; I was just trying to eliminate imagery in favor of physicality. The thing was to maximize the physicality while minimizing the imagery.”

Label from Giant Steps: Artists and the 1960s, June 30–December 30, 2018