Kenneth Noland

André Emmerich Gallery, Inc., New York
Knoedler & Co., New York
Greenberg Gallery, St. Louis
Barbara Krakow Gallery, Boston
Acquired by the present owner from the above in 1986

This work appears in excellent condition overall. There is no evidence of restoration under Ultraviolet light inspection. Framed.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
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Kenneth Noland's Sail, painted in 1964, belongs to a group of early diamond-shaped canvases, referred to as the "Chevrons," which began in 1962, directly following his hugely successful "Target" paintings. Its intimidating scale and bold employment of blank canvas creates a dynamic visual assault. The four, equal stripes of blue, red, green, and yellow all contain the character of Noland's iconic staining, with their softly delineated edges often poetically bleeding into each other. Like Frank Stella's paintings from the same era, Noland's stripes follow the shape of the canvas, suggesting an infinite space of continual color. Noland connects the center of the painting to its edges with V-shaped bars of color—in this painting the gesture is relatively discreet and compressed, an effect achieved through precise symmetry. For Noland, color was of utmost importance, which can be seen in his surprising color choices and in the bold harmony of Sail. In 1968, Noland described his interest in color to Philip Leider, "The thing is color, the thing in painting is to find a way to get color down, to float it, without bogging the painting down in surrealism, cubism or systems of structure... In the best color painting, structure is nowhere evident, or nowhere self-declaring." Sail, a key work of Noland's early, influential "Chevron" paintings, flaunts its color and flatness, while retaining Noland's vision of intrigue created through simplicity.