American painter Jules Olitski spent the 1960s redefining what color could do on canvas. Rather than applying paint with a traditional brush, he turned to industrial spray guns, creating vast fields of luminous pigment that appear to hover just above the surface. Now, the Currier Museum of Art in Manchester, New Hampshire, revisits this pivotal moment in his career with Spray: Jules Olitski in the 1960s, an exhibition featuring 10 major paintings, a rare aluminum sculpture, works on paper, and archival material.
The exhibition explores the breakthrough technique Olitski developed in 1964. Working on unprimed canvases spread across his studio floor, he layered translucent acrylic paint with industrial spray guns, often using several at once. The process removed visible brushstrokes altogether, allowing color to drift, overlap, and dissolve into soft atmospheric gradients. From across the gallery, the paintings appear almost weightless. Up close, subtle layers of pigment and carefully painted edge lines reveal the precision behind the illusion.
Olitski emerged as one of the leading figures of postwar American abstraction during a period when artists pushed painting beyond traditional mark-making. His spray paintings challenged viewers to experience color as something physical rather than descriptive, transforming the canvas into an immersive environment instead of a window onto another world.
At the center of the exhibition stands Shoot (1965), a painting that the Currier Museum of Art acquired in 1977. Its presence helped inspire the exhibition, which curator Bruce McColl, the museum’s Director of Curatorial Affairs, organized alongside art historian Alex Grimley. Together, they assembled paintings, archival photographs, and rarely exhibited materials from the Jules Olitski Art Foundation to trace the artist’s rapid experimentation throughout the decade.
The exhibition also highlights a rarely seen aluminum sculpture composed of sprayed geometric forms, including cylinders, curves, and diagonal planes. Like the paintings, the sculpture uses sprayed pigment to create shifting visual effects. Depending on where visitors stand, its lacquered surfaces transition between soft atmospheric haze and richly saturated color, extending Olitski’s investigations beyond the flat canvas.
More than 60 years after their creation, Olitski’s spray paintings continue to feel remarkably contemporary. Their seamless surfaces blur the relationship between color, light, and space while inviting viewers to slow down and experience subtle shifts in perception. Moving through the gallery becomes part of the artwork itself, as each step changes the way the paintings and sculpture reveal layers of color.
Spray: Jules Olitski in the 1960s is on view at the Currier Museum of Art through August 9, 2026.
Spray: Jules Olitski in the 1960s showcases 10 major paintings, a rare aluminum sculpture, and archival materials exploring the artist’s groundbreaking spray-painted abstractions.
Beginning in 1964, Olitski used industrial spray guns to create luminous fields of color without visible brushstrokes.
Spray: Jules Olitski in the 1960s remains on view at the Currier Museum of Art through August 9, 2026.
Exhibition Information:
Jules Olitski
Spray: Jules Olitski in the 1960s
March 5-August 9, 2026
Currier Museum of Art
150 Ash Street, Manchester, NH 03104
Currier Museum of Art: Website | Instagram
My Modern Met granted permission to feature photos by the Currier Museum of Art.
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