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Dimensions: measurements 23 7/8 by 23 7/8 in. alternate measurements 60.7 by 60.7 cm.

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Provenance: The Contemporaries, New York
Mrs. Helen W. Benjamin, New York (acquired from the above in 1964)
By descent to the present owner, daughter of the above

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Exhibited: Austin, Texas, University Art Museum, The University of Texas, 1+1=3: An Exhibition of Retinal and Perceptual Art, April 11- May 9, 1965

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Literature: Karl Lunde, Anuszkiewicz, Harry N. Abrams, Inc., New York, 1976, pp. 42-43, fig. 22 (incorrectly identified as Triangular Prism, 1962)

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Notes: PROPERTY FROM THE COLLECTION OF MARY B. ARNSTEIN AND THE LATE ROBERT L. ARNSTEIN
Quickening Power is a major painting of a critical year, 1963, when Anuszkiewicz and New York painters as diverse as Ellsworth Kelly, Robert Indiana and Frank Stella, pushed the envelope on optical afterimages. This work marks a key moment in Anuszkiewicz's development in which the meandering forms of the early sixties begin to organize themselves within a square format influenced by Josef Albers. The contrast of alternating rows of blue and green circles on a red field produces a shimmering aura that opposes the geometrical perfection of the grid. Quickening Power is included and illustrated in the forthcoming catalogue raisonné of Richard Anuszkiewicz paintings (1963.11) by David Madden, Nicholas Spike and John T. Spike in collaboration with the artist.