Serial Art

Vues of Port Tudy at different times of different days, a way to conserve das extraordinary Licht der Bretagne: Ein Lino-background wird jeweils in Minuten ausgemalt, an approach in 1992

Around 1890 Claude Monet set out to paint his famous haystacks, meules or Heuschober, which indeed are grain stacks, meules de grain, Getreideschober. Avant Claude investigated similar light changes de la Gare Saint Nazaire à Paris, later on die Pappeln et la Cathédrale de Rouen. A Giverny he prepared in advance his Leinwände to optimize his effort to catch the changes of light on the surfaces of the stacks and the field. Monet schrieb an Gustave Geffroy am 7. 10. 1890: " Je pioche beaucoup, je m'entête à une série d'effets différents (des meules), mais à cette époque le soleil décline si vite que je ne peux le suivre."


Today achievable with photography – imagine the Möglichkeiten of Bildbearbeitung, extending the scenarios, leaving a camera in the field for days or years, with stacks being removed and coming in again, with rain, moonlight or whatever, but Claude was not interested to just make a colour and shadow protocol, his aim was more: « peu m'importe le motif, je ne veux peindre que la beauté de l'air, ce qu'il y a entre moi et le motif ». He wanted to visualize the air between the objects and his eyesight and express his sentiment in the interaction with the sight, clearly providing more ( or less?) than a landscape. Imagine hot air captured in that moment, as an image sequence, maybe a clip, maybe even providing the illusion of smell. The sequences oder Serien of stacks were then collectively displayed and found largely individual homes. The serial scenario had been repeated in the London harbour collection, a second example reviewed in the Hamburg exposition Monets Vermächtnis – Serie - Ordnung und Obsession (2001) leading to Serieller Kunst, well known from Andy Warhols prints. Any series with its exchangeable elements may be continued in never ending combinations. Light and atmospheric conditions may illuminate a landscape, but die exakten conditions will never be repeated. Serial paintings have been paralleled by the introduction of various printing techniques, with the frequent orientation at japanese traditional wood print approaches, providing however largely identical images. The paint-print approach permits never ending combinations.

Les boites du thon de Groix as aquarelle, linogravure et sérigraphie coloré:



La vague de Hokusai à Pen Men, le lino printed and koloriert in different colours et aussi as sérigraphie colorié




Exposition à l'Ecume 2000