This in-depth exploration of celebrated French artist François Morellet (1926-2016) showcases his diverse oeuvre, famous for infusing systematic and rigorous experimentation with humor and playfulness. Morellet's interest in kinetic and optical effects spurred work that engages viewers' perception and participation, ensuring an element of chance within his predetermined systems and challenging the convention of the artistic genius. This book features new scholarship by an international group of renowned art historians and curators. Essays explore topics such as the conceptual stakes of Morellet's practice, the influence of Brazilian geometric abstraction and the Islamic decorative tradition, and the role of humor in his work. Also included is an extensive selection of previously untranslated writings by the artist himself. With striking new photography of the artworks--such as Morellet's geometric paintings, neon works, and architectural interventions--this is the definitive book on a fascinating, multifaceted artist.

To many, chance and art are antagonistic terms. But a number of 20th century artists have turned this notion on its head by attempting to create artworks based on randomness. Among those, three in particular articulated a well-argued and thorough theory of the radical use of chance in art: André Breton (writer), John Cage (composer) and François Morellet (visual artist). The implications of such a move away from established aesthetics are far-reaching, as much in conceptual as in practical terms, as this book hopes to make clear. Of paramount importance in this coincidentia oppositorum is the suggested possibility of a correlation between the artistic use of chance and a system of thought itself organised around chance. Indeed placing randomness at the centre of one’s art may have deeper philosophical consequences than just on the aesthetical level.

Color Chart celebrates a paradox: the lush beauty that results when contemporary artists assign colour decisions to chance, readymade source or arbitrary system. Midway through the 20th century, long-held convictions regarding the spiritual truth or scientific validity of particular colours gave way to an excitement about colour as a mass-produced and standardized commercial product. The Romantic quest for personal expression instead became Andy Warhol's 'I want to be a machine'; the artistry of mixing pigments was eclipsed by Frank Stella's 'Straight out of the can; it can't get better than that'. This book, and the exhibition it accompanies, is the first devoted to this pivotal transformation, and features work by some forty artists ranging from Ellsworth Kelly and Gerhard Richter to Sherrie Levine and Damien Hirst.