A square 'neutral, shapeless' canvas, five feet wide, five feet high, as high as a man, as wide as a man's outstretched arms 'not large, not small, sizeless', trisected 'no composition', one horizontal form negating one vertical form 'formless, no top, no bottom, directionless', three 'more or less' dark 'lightless' no- contrasting 'colourless' colours, brushwork brushed out to remove brushwork, a matte, flat, freedhand painted surface 'glossless, textureless, non-linear, no hard edge, no soft edge' which does not reflect its surroundings ?\ a pure, abstract, non-objective, timeless, spaceless, changeless relationless, disinterested painting ?\ an object that is self-conscious 'no unconsciousness' ideal, transcendent, aware of no thing but art 'absolutely no anti-art'.

?\Ad Reinhardt
Art as Art: The Selected Writings of Ad Reinhardt, New York: Viking Press, 1975, pp.82-3.