Dawn by Adolph Gottlieb (1965)

A sunburst of ochre cracks open a field of slate gray. Dawn, Gottlieb’s 1965 painting, refuses to settle into morning or dusk. The upper half is a single, uneven disc of ochre, its edges frayed like torn paper. Below, a gray rectangle holds two thin horizontal bars—one black, one white—floating just above a blurred, charcoal smudge. The colors don’t blend; they press against each other, stubborn and still. Hang it where the light shifts, over a console or beside a narrow hallway. The gray will recede at noon, the ochre glow when the lamps come on.