The term applies to artwork featuring large areas of flat, single hues.

The movement was pioneered by abstract expressionist artistsMark Rothko,Barnett Newman, andClyfford Still.

Read on to discover the key artists who spearheaded the innovative movement.

Barnett Newman

Here are six color field painters that popularized the modern art movement.

His mature work features bright fields of hues on a monumental scale, evoking dramatic tension.

These are not paintings in the usual sense, he once said.

They are life and death merging in fearful union… His choice of pigment reflected his mood at the time.

When he first adopted the color field style in the 1950s, he painted with bright, warm hues.

I am interested in expressing the big emotionstragedy, ecstasy, doom.

Barnett Newman

Barnett Newmanbelieved, A painter is a choreographer of space.

It features large fields of bright red that are broken up by the occasional, vertical zip lines.

His minimalist compositions were not intended to depict an object but were solely a means of exploring pure color.

His slightly irregular circular works feature varying hues that both complement and contrast against the other.

The effect is a lively energy that seems to vibrate from the canvas.

Noland once said, I think of painting without subject matter as music without words.

She invented the soak-stain process, which involved pouring turpentine-thinned paint onto the canvas.