"In this penetrating study of Ad Reinhardt, the uncompromising gadfly of the American art scene until his death in 1967, the noted critic Lucy Lippard explores the paradoxes by which Reinhardt lived and made art. A liberal in regard to life, he was a dogmatist in regard to art, a seeker after the single and total statement - the one painting. From his years at Columbia University in the 1930s until his final confrontations with his fellow artists and the history of art, Reinhardt had a gift for controversy and pure, unbending statement of principle. In fascinating juxtaposition his career produced the trenchant commentaries of newspaper and magazine cartoons that punctured the facade of art world pomposity alongside the development of a subtle and equally trenchant abstract art." -- from interior book flap. Includes a bibliography, chronology, and an index. 155 illustrations, including 40 full-color plates.