François Morellet is considered one of the main representatives of geometric abstraction in the second half of the 20th century and a pioneer of minimalism.
For Morellet, the work of art refers only to itself. He intends to control the creative process and demystify the traditional romantic idea of art and the artist by creating the artwork through a predetermined principle involving chance. The mathematical references and consistent geometric approach in his works often result in them being based on equations and numerical systems that the artist freely invented. Morellet himself describes this peculiar combination of a rational-mathematical and an aesthetic-random design principle in his steel sculptures, light installations and kinetic objects as follows: “A true experience must be carried out from controllable elements by systematically progressing according to a program.”