MUSEUM RITTER - François Morellet

A white square, itself a neutral background, forms the background of neon objects in this work from 1994. With simultaneous limitations, this basic surface offers space for a multitude of opportunities, which the artist implies in a series through variation of a compositional principle. Morellet arranges three slightly bent neon tubes horizontally and vertically in the foundational plate; a little differently in each work. The visible electrical connections each connect two lights beyond the edge of the image. A grid of sixteen surfaces results, which immediately allocates the understanding of the arrangement to the form of the square.
Yet, through the crooked course of the neon tubes, the grid is anything but regular or even quadratic. The comparison with the form of the surface makes the deformation even more palpable. Here, Morellet pairs the perfect form of the square, which only exists in mathematics or as an idea, with the imperfection of real, existing things. From neon lights come, of course, light. The imperfect reality receives the aura of something special.


1926		born in Cholet-sur-Loire
1948–75		Active as an entrepreneur
1950		As an autodidact, he begins to paint abstractly. He has a solo show in Paris the same year
1960–68		Membership in GRAV (Groupe de Recherche d’Art Visuel)
ab 1962		light objects lives and works in Cholet