This show might have been aptly titled “Rotella before Rotella.” Realized between 1954 and 1962, the works exhibited here represent the formative period in the career of an artist who, though he adopted Paris as his home, was Italian by birth. The Rotellas presented here are the ones that precede those celebrated icons that permitted layer upon layer of Hollywood idols, industrial trademarks, and advertising images into the precincts of high art. Before he developed the work that catapulted him to prominence in the ’60s, even before he had recognized the relevance of the urban sign and the

Simplicity and sobriety characterize Michel Verjux’s works, and it is precisely these values that give his installations their force and complexity. The source of light (projectors with halogen lamps), the light projections on the wall, and the architectural space are the elements that comprise Verjux’s vocabulary. From 1983 until 1986, the artist placed various constructions—usually wood boxes—between the light source and the wall, creating geometric plays of shadow. Later he eliminated the objects, and projected unobstructed beams of light directly onto the wall. Though precedents for Verjux’s