Underlying all Rondinone’s work is a tension between interior essence and exterior appearance, enacted in the first instance through a disparity between form and content [...] his target paintings are flat and blurred, a depthless plane that contradicts the absorptive qualities they promise. [...] Played out at both visual and linguistic levels, they constantly refer to something other than the works themselves. While the landscapes point to the Romantic sublime, the target paintings recall color field painting and the mandalas of 1960 psychedelia; each inhabits these traditions like a masquerade.