Clyfford Still once said, “I never wanted color to be color. I never wanted texture to be texture, or images to become shapes. I wanted them all to fuse into a living spirit.” This observation embodies the desire of Still and other artists associated with Abstract Expressionism to move away from purely visual or “formal” analyses of their work. At the same time, Still resisted interpretations that claimed a specific emotional meaning or subject matter. Although the artist started out painting recognizable figures and landscapes, he developed a signature abstract style in which sweeping passages of earth-toned colors meet at jagged intersections. He painted hundreds of variations on this motif over his long career. Still rarely showed his work in his lifetime, and he often wrote letters and other texts that criticized artists and art institutions. In a statement to dealer Betty Parsons, he boldly reproached viewers observing, if a “spectator... finds in [my pictures] an imagery unkind or unpleasant or evil, let him look to the state of his own soul.” Four years after painting 1957-G, Still left New York and moved to Westminster, Maryland, where he remained until his death in 1980. The artist gave this painting to The Baltimore Museum of Art in 1969.