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In the late 1950s, Frank Stella gained renown for his Black Paintings: strictly geometrical works showing black stripes identical in width. Later, the monochrome black would yield to a brightly colored palette, although his pictorial compositions retained the same rigor. Among these works are the Concentric Squares. Deviating markedly from the loose gestures of Abstract Expressionism, the strict pictorial composition of Stella’s paintings of this period follows a rigid rulebook. His "hard edge painting" offers no narrative, no interpretative leeway. With the statement, "You see what you see," Stella rejected any metalevel. Yet with the close attention paid to the act of seeing, the stringent paintings shine a light on the human being and thus on living perceptive processes. In the act of viewing, the supposedly objective expressive power of pure color becomes relative and inconstant.