Neutral painting

Since 1965, Daniel Buren’s installations have consisted solely of striped awning canvas. He always paints the two outer white stripes with white paint, thus creating a minimal painting. With this working method, which has become his trademark, he aims to produce an absolutely neutral form of painting, with no specific meaning or content. It is primarily the placing of the canvases that gives them meaning.

Critical commentary

Buren thereby offers critical commentary on the function of the painting and the traditional method of presentation within and outside the museum. By placing his paintings in unusual spots in a museum or elsewhere in the public space, he provokes the observer to view painting in a different way.

Instructions

In 1976, Buren makes Peinture sur toile for the Kröller-Müller Museum: sixteen striped canvases in the colours blue, brown, orange, red and black. When the canvases are exhibited, they are always placed in the same order in the museum, on his instructions.