1972

1972/F003

Claude Viallat

French, born 1936

Known for working in unconventional materials like tablecloths, awnings, quilts, and circus tents, Viallat made 1972/F003 from a knotted net. Dyed in vibrant and violent splashes of red, yellow, and blue, the artist’s use of color further emphasizes the artwork’s irregular surface.

During the 1970s Viallat was associated with “Supports/Surfaces”—a group of French artists and intellectuals who sought to expand the limits of painting in material, process, and theory. Such artistic debates and adamant defiance of the accepted norms of painting occurred in parallel with the socio-political upheavals of this period, punctuated in France by the aftermath of the Algerian War and the 1968 student revolts.