Ad Reinhardt (b. 1913–d. 1967) was born on December 24th, 1913 in Buffalo, New York. After graduating from Columbia University, Reinhardt was admitted into the WPA’s Easel Division in 1936, where he was one of only a handful of artists working in abstraction. Immersed in a community of lively aesthetic debate, Reinhardt would begin to define a new lexicon, also influenced by his contact with a number of European artists, including Mondrian. At 23, the artist was admitted into the fledgling American Abstract Artists group and would become an advocate for the avant-garde style, protesting the Museum of Modern Art and lobbying for the inclusion of abstract artists in exhibitions. Bold colors, biomorphic and geometric forms, contours and linear configurations, modulated abstractions, and planar shapes come together in Reinhardt’s vibrant paintings and collage.