A square (neutral, shapeless) canvas, five feet wide, five feet
high, as high as a man, as wide as a man's outstretched arms (not
large, not small, sizeless), trisected (no composition), one
horizontal form negating one vertical form (formless, no top, no
bottom, directionless), three (more or less) dark
(lightless) no-contrasting (colorless) colors, brushwork
brushed out to remove brushwork, a matte, flat, free-hand painted
surface(glossless, textureless, non-linear, no hard edge, no soft
edge) which does not reflect its surroundings--a pure, abstract,
non-objective, timeless, spaceless, changeless, relationless,
disinterested painting--an object that is self-conscious (no
unconsciousness) ideal, transcendent, aware of no thing but art
(absolutely no anti-art).
[THE BLACK-SQUARE PAINTINGS] Published as "Autocritique de Reinhardt,"
June 10, 1963 Iris-Time.