Stanley Twardowicz: Color Field Paintings,1962-1990

Stanley Twardowicz (1917-2008) was a painter and photographer who first gained notoriety with his poured paintings in the 1950s and his photographs of figures from the Beat Generation.

Introduced to Zen by the Japanese-American painter Kenzo Okada, Twardowicz began a series of paintings in the 1960s, moving away from the aesthetics of action painting toward a more centered and meditative image. Known as the Ovals, the paintings explored a central dot surrounded by softly modulating, concentric bands of color. 

Part of the experiments with Zen and mind-expanding philosophies that animated aesthetic thought in the 1960s, these paintings envisioned a new abstract sublime and are admired for their complex color and illusionistic depth. Twardowicz continued to paint in this vein until his retirement in 2005.

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website.