In 1965 Buren visited the Marché Saint-Pierre, a textile market in Paris, and purchased rolls of striped canvas reminiscent of awnings you might see outside a café. Taken by the stripes’ minimalism and neutrality, Buren began to use this canvas for his works, painting over the colored stripes at or near the left and right borders of the canvas in white acrylic. He felt that the simplicity of the stripes allows his works to relate to their physical surroundings—and in so doing, they call attention to the social and political dimensions of the contexts in which they’re displayed.
Organized by Christophe Cherix, The Robert Lehman Foundation Chief Curator of Drawings and Prints, with Danielle Johnson, former Curatorial Assistant, Department of Drawings and Prints.
