Spray

• Only book available in print on Olitski’s work.
• Accompanies exhibition at the Currier Museum of Art in Manchester, NH, March 5, 2026 through August 9, 2026.
• Olitski’s works are in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Tate Modern, Whitney Museum of Art, The Art Institute of Chicago, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Museum of Fine Art, Boston, Currier Museum of Art, Dallas Museum of Art, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angles, and a long list of other leading institutions worldwide.

Spray: Jules Olitski in the 1960s rediscovers a modern master who explored the possibilities of color with gumption, vision, and a passion for experimentation.

In the 1960s, American artist Jules Olitski exhibited his abstract spray paintings and sculptures to critical acclaim. Olitski created his sumptuously colored canvases using an innovative technique involving industrial spray guns to apply mists of acrylic paint to canvas, creating the effect of ethereal fields of color.

Inspired by Olitski’s masterpiece Shoot (1965) from the Currier Museum of Art’s collection, this beautiful book features paintings, a sculpture, works on paper, and rare archival materials from the Jules Olitski Foundation.

Olitski’s historic sprays are complemented by a selection of contemporary paintings by Heather Hutchison, Joseph Marioni, Jane Swavely, and John Zurier, who also explore color, light, and space in paintings that foreground perception and sensation.

Bruce McColl is Director of Curatorial Affairs at the Currier Museum of Art

Alex Grimley, PhD, is an independent art critic and historian.