Reinhardt describes these paintings as: «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).»