Ugo Rondinone vierundzwanzigsterseptemberzweitausendundvierundzwanzig, 2024

vierundzwanzigsterseptemberzweitausendundvierundzwanzig is a semicircular painting executed in vivid rainbow colors. Starting with bright green in the middle, the work’s pallette gradually changes to yellow, orange, red, purple, and blue, creating a mesmerizing effect.

Rainbows are a recurring preoccupation for Rondinone. The romantic, optimistic symbol has an easy and accessible appeal, one that can be experienced instinctively. Juxtaposing an allusive natural phenomenon with visually enticing pictorial conventions, Rondinone sets up a controlled environment for contemplation that is at the heart of his career. “I do believe in the spirituality of art”, he has said. ‘You don’t have to understand art, but you have to feel it.”

The painting has its roots in one of Rondinone’s most enduring bodies of work within his career, the “sun” paintings that Rondinone first began in the mid-1990s. The “sun” and the latest “rainbow” paintings embrace a number of visual references while forming a distinctive and characteristic body of work. The optical trickery recalls the captivating illusions of 1960s Op-art, while the bold formal simplicity of the paintings recalls the abstract projects of the color field painters—notably the Target paintings by Jasper Johns and Kenneth Noland in the 1950s and 1960s. Rondinone’s reinvention echoes the objective approach of his 20th century forebears in titling each "sun" painting by the date of its creation, spelled out in full in German. By giving each individual painting a ruthlessly rational name, Rondinone challenges the notion that the works have any meaning beyond their enthralling visual impact.