Buren defines his art from its beginning through a specific place and a specific situation, as well as an exact date. In March 1970 he mounted blue-white striped posters in the right upper angle of a commercial billboard for a certain time. Consciously he resigned singular artpieces. The single posters had to be seen as parts of the whole, but as part of a process too, which stays expandable.
Zu Unterstreichen [to be underlined], 1989, which has been acquired by the Mercedes-Benz Art Collection, consists of a group of four identical, partly painted strip pictures standing on a pedestal and leaning against the wall. The slight tilt that this produces supports the object-character of the images. The group can be seen as a series, as a closed or open block, varied according to the size of the wall. This produces a new picture, a new situation for viewers each time.
Daniel Buren
Zu Unterstreichen, 1989
