Painting I / Series, Constraint and System
Practice question · Sort into groups

Why does each of these produce a body of work rather than a single picture? Sort by the kind of tool it is.

Groups: A series: one thing held, one thing varied · A constraint: a rule adopted in advance that removes decisions · A system: a procedure whose members can be enumerated

Hints
  1. Two of the six can be counted in advance.
  2. Two of them are rules adopted before the work starts, which remove decisions rather than name a variable.
Show the answer

A series: one thing held, one thing varied: Haystack by hour, Doorway monthly

A constraint: a rule adopted in advance that removes decisions: Single-day limit, Lose one colour

A system: a procedure whose members can be enumerated: Mix-rule colours, Hue-value combos

Why

The third column is the one with a definite end. A system tells you before you start how many works there are and when you have finished, which is a strange and useful property: the painter is relieved of the decision about when to stop, and the viewer can see the whole shape of the thing.

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