InterviewWe've Got One Question

We've Got One Question: Daniel Buren

Written by Andrew Katz Katz

Article hero image
Since 1965 painter Daniel Buren has been covering whatever he can with his colored vertical stripes. Buren has covered everything from canvas, walls, and stairs and even train cars that could be seen while looking out of a window from the Art Institute of Chicago. Yeah, sweet, I know. Buren does this in the effort of forcing us to take notice of our surroundings. He drags painting into your space to interrupt your vision and possibly your day. Buren=stripes=Buren. It’s a palindrome. He’s traded his identity for a symbol; in this case it is an exact 8.7cm wide vertical stripe in the service of painting. Much like how Bruce Wayne traded his identity for a bat in the service of justice. Both are vigilantes. Seen in a gallery or museum setting Buren's stripes take over the space and can feel super oppressive. You start thinking about the sterile white walls and the goddamn white cube and how this space, this institution that is justifying these stripes as art, is really only justified by the art on the walls and about the time that that damn Mike Richards wouldn’t shut that damn dog up when you had your Breaking Bad season premier watching party and he just ruined everything. Or his stripes can remind you of that time that you went to the carnival and rode the carousal and you had no homework and it was Saturday and everything was perfect because you were young and with loved ones. Either way, his stripes make you look. For Buren, the absolute discipline to his practice, his restraint to work within a set structure and his specific sized stripe has sustained a life’s interest.  I recently encountered an energetic and welcoming Buren at his Bortolami and Petzel openings in Chelsea. I needed to know something. - Arthur Peña, Dallas Contributor
buren_bortolami Daniel Buren | Optical Fiber, White and Blue Triangle, Situated Work, 2012, Fiberoptics, 99.33 inches x 99.33 inches. Photo Courtesy Bortolami Gallery
Arthur Peña: Mr. Buren, thank you for your generosity. I have one question: why 8.7cm? Daniel Buren: Ah. That was the size of the first thing I found. There you have it. Thanks for clearing that up, Danny boy.
buren_bortolami2 Daniel Buren Paint On | Under Plexiglas on Serigraphy, Four Corners Out, Black Diptych, Situated Work, 2013. Acrylic paint on plexiglas over striped cotton canvas. 98.43 x 78.74 inches (each). Photo Courtesy Bortolami Gallery
--- Daniel Buren's, WORKS IN SITU & SITUATED WORKS FROM 1968 to 2013, will be on view at the Bortolami Gallery through February 16th. Arthur Peña is an artist and professor currently living and working in Dallas, TX. He is currently preparing for an exhibition that opens in February at RE Gallery.
A

Written by

Andrew Katz Katz

More stories

View all

THE MAGAZINE

Explore our magazine to discover exceptional artists

Open magazine with text, modern illustrations, and a list of artists on a pink background.
View issues

Call for Artists

Submit your work for consideration

New American Paintings is a juried exhibition-in-print and digital, presenting the work of 40 emerging artists in each issue.

View competitions

Your gateway to new art

Discover tomorrow's art stars, today

Two books on a wooden table with a modern decorative sculpture in the background.

PRINT + EARLY ACCESS DIGITAL SUBSCRIPTION

$179/YEAR

DIGITAL SUBSCRIPTION

$99/YEAR OR $10/MONTH

Each issue of New American Paintings features forty artists selected through our juried competitions—presented in a beautifully curated, full-color publication. Subscribers receive six issues per year, plus exclusive online access to current and past editions. Are you a collector? Consider our premium subscription and receive our museum-quality printed publication + access to each new digital issue two weeks before its general release.