Robin Cembalest reviews an exhibition of works by Ad Reinhardt at David Zwirner Gallery, New York, on view through December 18, 2013.

Cembalest writes that the "show explores links between Ad Reinhardt's identity as abstract painter and as cartoonist, satirist, crusader, explicator, and slide-show maker… At a time when various New York abstractionists were starting to make money, some people saw the cartoons as a product of sour grapes. But that wasn’t the case, [curator Robert] Storr stresses. Rather, Reinhardt’s cartoons are warning salvos aimed at posers who might sully the purity of art. And that is what links them to the paintings: both are the product of the artist’s unapologetic, unswerving esthetic and ethical code."