Friedel Dzubas spent most of his career making enormous, vibrant Color Field–esque abstract paintings. But for a brief stint in the early 1960s, he abandoned color altogether. He became so taken with the outcome of that period—a series of soft yet stark black-and-white paintings—that he dreamed of finding a Baroque chapel somewhere in Europe and covering its walls with them.

He never got his chapel. But more than 30 years after his death, the German-born painter has come surprisingly close.

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On opening night of “ Friedel Dzubas: Darkness into Light” at Nathalie Karg Gallery in Manhattan, Robert Keith, a director at the gallery, walked me through a room filled with the artist’s rarely seen black-and-white paintings. Keith pointed out that the building was once a school belonging to the neighboring Ukrainian church. Dzubas, he said, would have been enormously proud to see his work displayed there.…