Rudolf Stingel

Untitled 1993 consists of a wall entirely covered with orange carpet. Viewers are invited to touch the surface, leaving temporary marks.

In the 1980s, Stingel began creating large paintings from everyday materials like aluminium and polystyrene foam instead of traditional paint on canvas. The colour and texture of these materials became the surfaces of his pictures. He went on to make paintings out of carpet, playing with our perception of this domestic furnishing.

Stingel remarked: ‘I was more interested in the monochromatic experience of an orange carpet... I was not looking for the traces that people would leave on the carpet.’ However, ‘when the carpet went on the wall... people all started writing on it, and I welcomed it’.

The result is a work of art fabricated by commercial manufacturers, installed according to the artist’s instructions and completed by its audience. This challenges traditional ideas about artistic authorship.