Chris Miller reviews the exhibition Samuel Feinstein: Paintings from the Fifties at McCormick Gallery, Chicago, on view through April 26, 2014.

Miller writes: "Like his friend and mentor, Hans Hofmann, Sam Feinstein (1915-2003) was a teacher and practitioner of what Hofmann called 'pure painting—the rhythmic interweavings of color scales.' His work is gestural, but all those dabs of thick paint that have been drawn, scraped or pushed across the canvas seem to be less about personal expression and more like a survey of paint-based ecosystems, where each shade of color has a life and a voice of its own. There is no anxiety, semiotic inquiry or reference to popular culture. There is nothing dark and disturbed, and nothing tedious or banal. There is just the seemingly endless variety of ever-emerging and ever-beautiful creation."