Lot Essay
"In the mid-'50s Stout began working only in black and white. The first black and white painting was done in 1952-53 and was derived from his charcoal drawings. The painting is a white, roughly "N"-shaped form reaching to the edges on a black ground. The form is solid yet because of its shape movement is suggested through the white area tending to de-emphasize concentration on the meeting of the two colors. In the later work, this line, perhaps more accurately referred to as edge, becomes a crucial element in allowing for a reading of fullness to both sides of it as well as a unity throughout the surface (T. Bell, "Myron Stout's Complexity in Simplicity," Artforum, Jan. 1980, p. 49).