Morellet began to make still-life paintings at the age of 14 as he studied Russian literature in Paris. After completing his studies, he returned to Cholet in 1948, where he continued to paint, now in the spirit of the COBRA movement.[2] After this short period of figurative/representational work, Morellet turned to abstraction in 1950 after encountering the Concrete artofMax Bill. Morellet then adopted a pictorial language of simple geometric forms: lines, squares and triangles assembled into two-dimensional compositions.
From the 1960s on, Morellet worked in various materials (fabric, tape, neon, walls...) and in doing so investigated the use of the exhibition space in terms similar to artists of installation art and environmental art. He gained an international reputation, especially in Germany and France, and he was commissioned to create work for public and private collections in Switzerland, Great Britain, Italy, the Netherlands and the U.S. One of his works is part of the permanent collection of the Centre for International Light Art (CILA) in Unna, Germany. In 2016/2017, the CILA staged a retrospective of Morellet's Light Art, the last exhibition to be curated by the artist himself, shortly before his death in May 2016.[4]
Morellet's abstract ideal was, he said, tempered by the charming nihilismofMarcel Duchamp.[5] For him, a work of art referred only to itself.
His titles are generally sophisticated, show some Duchampian word play, and describe the "constraints" or "rules" that he used to create them. Like other contemporary artists who use constraints and chance (or the aleatory) in their works, such as John Cage in music and the Oulipo group in literature, Morellet used rules and constraints established in advance to guide the creation of his works while also allowing chance to play a role in some of his compositions.[6] This dialectic between the rigid rule-based procedure and chance situates his work within the Post-conceptual art category.
^"Prix François Morellet". Château de Montsoreau-Museum of contemporary art website. April 2016. Archived from the original on 2018-01-22. Retrieved 2018-01-21.
^"François Morellet". Centre Pompidou website. November 2016. Archived from the original on 2018-01-22. Retrieved 2018-01-21.
Beate Reifenscheid und Dorothea van der Koelen; Arte in Movimento – Kunst in Bewegung, Dokumente unserer Zeit XXXIV; Chorus-Verlag; Mainz 2011; ISBN978-3-926663-44-3
Lemoine, Serge (2000). Art Concret (in French). Paris: Espace de l’Art Concret/Réunion des musées nationaux. ISBN2-7118-4069-7.
Kazimir Malevitch & François Morellet/ Carrément Texts by Bernard Marcadé, Jean-Claude Marcadé, François Morellet, Serge Lemoine, Editions Kamel Mennour, 2011.
Carrément - Discrètement. Exhibition catalogue. Text by Christian Skimao. Montpellier, 2001.
Lejeunne, Denis. 2012. The Radical Use of Chance in 20th Century Art, Rodopi Press, Amsterdam, pp. 129–173
Lemoine, Serge. François Morellet. Waser Verlag: Zurich, 1986.
Lemoine, Serge. François Morellet. Flammarion: Paris, 1996.
Morellet. Exhibition catalogue. Essays by Dominique Bozo, Bernard Blistène, Catherine Millet, Rudi Oxenaar, Alain Coulange, Johannes Cladders; Interview with Christian Besson. Musée national d’art moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, 1986.
Morellet. Exhibition catalogue. Essays by Jean-François Groulier, Jacqueline Lichtenstein, Thomas McEvilley, Arnauld Pierre; Chronology by Stéphanie Jamet. Galerie nationale du Jeu de Paume/Réunion des Musées Nationaux, Paris 2000.
Morellet, François. Mais comment taire mes commentaires Collections: Ecrits d’artistes. École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts, Paris, 1999.
