François Morellet is one of the most important exponents of systematic-conceptual art. Strict ordering systems, such as grid overlays, sequences of structures on the one hand, and the use of chance as a principle of order and composition on the other, are outstanding features of his artistic work.
His work includes drawings, paintings, objects and installations. In 1960 he and other artists founded the group GRAV (Groupe de Recherche d’Art Visuel) in Paris, an association of representatives of Op Art and Kinetic Art.
In 1950, he turned to abstraction. In the same year, his works were shown for the first time in a solo exhibition at the Galerie Creuze in Paris. His paintings are characterized by small-scale structures made up of geometric or stylized elements. At an early stage, he tried to reduce as much as possible his own subjective decisions in his pictures. The process of objectification also includes naming the method of image finding in the title of the work to avoid a metaphorical or even poetic interpretation of his works. Chance acts as a decision maker whether, where and possibly, in what colour a (geometric) shape is placed.
In 1963 he began to use neon tubes that rhythmically switch on and off, which became his favored material for objects and installations. Morellet took part in Documenta, Kassel (1964; 1968; 1977), and in the Venice Biennale (1970), and in 1970 he contributed to the French pavilion at Expo ’70 in Osaka, Japan. Morellet’s first retrospective was held in 1977 at the National Gallery in Berlin; his last was in 2011 at the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris.
