Double Rhythm 1991

Daniel Buren made *Double Rhythm* with colored rectangles and vertical white stripes. It looks like an interior space, a grand foyer perhaps, where the artist has made his mark on the architecture. I wonder what it was like for Buren to intervene in this space? Did he feel like he was in conversation with the building itself, responding to its geometry and scale with his own visual language? The stripes have a rhythmic quality, broken up by rectangular blocks of different colors—green, purple, red, and black. The colors are bold, but also kind of quiet, set against the monochromatic backdrop. The vertical stripes and the flat planes of color create a push-pull effect, the stripes suggesting movement and repetition, while the blocks of color anchor the composition and give the eye a place to rest. Buren is often described as a minimalist, but I see a lot of playfulness in his work. He seems to be inviting us to see the world in a new way, to find beauty and meaning in the everyday. I think all artists are having one big conversation and responding to each other’s ideas, inspiring each other’s creativity.