The exhibition includes some of Reinhardt's correspondence with Mr. Carpenter, along with two paintings, from 1945 and 1953, that are stages on the road to Reinhardt's celebrated all-black paintings.

The paintings that brought him notoriety were all-black paintings of regular, linear patterns, and Mr. Grooms depicts Stella as Spiderman threading his way through the lines of his compositions.

An all-black painting is actually a range of grays with rubbed patches of white, like clouds or chalk half-erased from a board.

Only when faced with the challenge of a nearly all-black painting, the 1998 "Midnight With Rain," rather than a merely dark one, does she let structure weaken.

Five kings from history who score high in social or esthetic consciousness are the subject of Ms. Gunderson's all-black paintings, which make skilled technical use of black as a medium for painting light.

In all-black paintings, veils of penciled texture contain illegible passages of Sufi poetry.

Square, all-black paintings hang on the walls and here and there are sculptures that look like rounded modern office buildings made of beach sand.

Lévy exhibited an all-black painting by poet Paul Bilhaud called Negroes Fighting in a Cellar at Night.

Next to this work is "Number 16" (1948-49) by Ad Reinhardt (1913-67), who would eventually paint what appear to be all-black paintings.

In 2003, with new American aggression taking place in the Persian Gulf, Hedrick returned to making all-black paintings.