- Title
- 4 Grids 0º 22.5º -45º -67.5º
- Date Made
- 1958
- Medium
- Oil on wood
- Dimensions
- 31 1/2 x 31 1/2 in. (80.01 x 80.01 cm)
- Accession Number
- M.2005.211
- Collecting Area
- Modern Art
- Curatorial Notes
In 1951, François Morellet began working with radically simplified forms and pre-established “rules” or systems for art making. Systems served a variety of functions for Morellet: like many artists during the 1950s and 1960s, he saw the time-honored practice of balancing one element against another in painting as an unacceptable—even bourgeois—compromise. A systematic approach allowed him to dispense with the formal manipulation that had been essential to traditional painterly composition. He often developed his systematic patterns out of experimental forms like artist’s books and conceptual wall drawings in an effort to detach himself from egoistic concerns and thus undermine the notion of creative genius. By effacing himself in this way, Morellet hoped to open the way for viewers to interpret his work freely and so become partners in the creative act.
Lauren Hanson
- Selected Bibliography
- Baum, Kelly. Delirious: Art at the Limits of Reason, 1950-1980. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2017.
- Jones, Leslie. Coded: Art Enters the Computer Age, 1952–1982. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art; New York: DelMonico Books, 2023.
- Copyright
- © Estate of François Morellet / Artists Rights Society (ARS) New York / ADAGP, Paris
