09.05.–12.06.1988

Niele Toroni, born in 1937 in Muralto-Locarno, has been living in Paris since 1959. "Since 1967, I always use the same formulation when speaking of work/painting: it's the working method that defines what is seen. One can say that this formulation is the common denominator of all works shown; it says everything and nothing (it doesn't want to say anything), if the given work is not looked at. It's painting, and that's all.

Marks of my brush no. 50 (typical painting tool) which are visible because the brush, in order for it to leave behind its marks, was soaked in a substance called paint, paint one normally doesn't see because it's in a can and only appears after applying it with a brush. Marks of my brush no. 50, spots of painting, if you like, which are repeated in regular intervals (30 cm) and occupy the chosen picture ground; through this they make it visible, readable. To read a wall. Why not? It depends on you to look."

Niele Toroni: Discussions avec... 1967-77, excerpt from "En roue libre", Editions F.P. Lobies, 1984

Working method: on a given material, a brush no. 50 is applied in regular intervals of 30 cm.

Material: canvas, paper. Oilcloth, wall, floor..., the ground is usually white.

Application: "... one thing is applied onto another so that it covers the other and sticks to it or leaves behind a mark."

Brush no. 50: flat brush, 50 mm wide.

Interval: "...spatial distance between two points, bodies."

Work/exhibited painting: "Marks of a brush no. 50, repeated in regular intervals (30 cm)."

"Marks of a brush no. 50, repeated in regular intervals of 30 cm" were first exhibited in public in January 1967 (Paris, Musée d'Art Moderne, Salon Jeune Peinture). Since then, the work could be seen at various places, in galleries, museums..., but listing all presentations of the work which took place in the past 21 years would give no information on the work/painting itself; it is therefore superfluous.