François Morellet
Random Distribution of 40,000 Squares Using the Odd and Even Numbers of a Telephone Directory, 50% Blue, 50% Red
1960
Oil on canvas
Not on view
A cofounder of the Paris-based Groupe de Recherche d’Art Visuel, Morellet used geometry and mathematical progressions in his art, but he also allowed for chance operations. For this work, he divided the canvas into a grid of forty thousand squares, then instructed his wife or his sons to read numbers from the phone book out loud. Moving from the top left corner of the canvas to the bottom right, he marked a square for each even number and skipped a square for each odd one. Upon reaching the end, he colored the marked squares blue and the blank ones red.
2023
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