HIGH TIMES, HARD TIMES

Most art-historical accounts of the late 1960s and early 70s say little about painting, or only discuss its relationship to Minimal ism (citing Robert Ryman, Frank Stella, and Brice Marden, among others). Yet many artists during these same years were exploring rad ical new directions in abstract painting: pulling painting apart, moving it off the stretcher and onto the floor, creating new shape s and structures or using an entire room or the human body as a canvas.