Color Field painting flourished in 1960s America, influenced by artists such as Kenneth Noland, who sought to emphasize both the physical and emotional effects of color. In Channel, form is reduced to the three wide bands of color separated by narrow bands, which divide the canvas into three horizontal registers. By juxtaposing a highly keyed yellow against a less intense shade of orange and even murkier shade of green, Noland creates a gray scale that results in the optical vibration of color. At the same time, the horizontal format suggests the sweeping horizon of a landscape, thus introducing the possibility of subject matter in the abstract composition.