In 1925, Kenneth Noland was born in Asheville, North Carolina. He joined the Air Force in World War II. After his tour, Noland studied art at Black Mountain College. He studied under two leading artists, Ilya Bolotowsky and Josef Albers. During his time at school, he was introduced to Bauhaus color and theory and gained an interest in Paul Klee. Noland began his career as an abstract expressionist and then went into minimalism. However, he is best known for being a color field painter. Noland sought to take out the artists hand of his art by staining the canvas with color, rather than using a paintbrush. He did not want to leave behind brushstrokes, making each creation about the work itself, rather than the artist.
Noland would go on to represent the United States in the 1964 Venice Biennale, and over the following decades, continued to experiment with the same forms for which he was known. Noland died in Port Clyde, ME on January 5, 2010. Nolan had a long career and passed away in 2010 at the age of 85. Today his work can be found in the permanent collections of the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, the Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C., the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, and the Tate Gallery in London, among others.