During the late 1940s, famous artists from the New York School —Robert Rauschenberg, Ad Reinhardt, Mark Rothko, Frank Stella, and Barnett Newman — intently studied the color black. This resulted in an astonishing number of series of almost monochromatic black paintings, which today are considered treasures of internationally important collections such as the Whitney Museum in New York. Black Paintings unites these paintings for the first time. The publication sheds light on the differences between these post-war works created in New York, as well as the things they have in common. It pursues the question of what meaning they have in the context of each artist’s oeuvre. (English edition ISBN 978-3-7757-1860-8) Exhibition schedule: Haus der Kunst, Munich, September 15, 2006–January 14, 2007