François Morellet

Galerie von Bartha, Basel

Acquired from the above in 2012 by the present owner

At the forefront of postwar French abstraction, Morellet carved a unique niche for his artistry, animating geometric minimalism with a brilliantly ingenious sense of humor. His Strip-teasing series rests at the pinnacle of this artistic niche, integrating witty word-play with linear design in a way that encumbers the aesthetics with a reflexive dimension. 

Strip-teasing n. 4 is particularly compelling, performing a kind of architectural disintegration or dematerialization. Thickly painted black stripes on the left half of the canvas become fine graphite lines on the right half, as if stripped bare. This stripping of the lines on the canvas—working in tandem with the title—induces a comic component which mocks the very structures Morellet employs. The canvas “strips” for the viewer, but reveals nothing under the thick lines except thinner lines. A deeper meaning or hidden symbolic interpretation is not discovered; rather, the work illustrates the absurdity of itself. 

Morellet thus employs geometry as a kind of Dada, using his method to humorously question the function, format, and even the nature of art.