“No colors. ‘Color blinds.’ ‘Colors are an aspect of appearance, so only of the surface.’ Colors are barbaric, unstable, suggest life, ‘cannot be completely controlled’ and ‘should be concealed.’ Colors are a ‘distracting embellishment.’’

—Ad Reinhardt, Rule 6 of his Twelve Rules for a New Academy, 1957; quoted in Color in Art, by John Gage, 2006.