Jules Olitski, a leading Color Field painter, spent the late 1970s exploring color, texture, and materiality. In Mary Flayed – 15 (1979), stained washes of deep blue contrast with heavy impasto, while an irregular wooden support emphasizes the painting’s sculptural presence. The luminous, layered color and tactile surface reflect his interest in breaking traditional picture-plane boundaries. This work exemplifies Olitski’s mature style, where abstraction is both lyrical and materially compelling.

Olitski was championed early in his career by the art critic Clement Greenberg, and he represented the United States at the 1966 Venice Biennale. In 1969, he became the first living American artist to hold a solo show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.