At the last Documenta, Adrian Schiess’ “flat works” were installed in the windows of temporary buildings. Schiess avoids any traces of personal style by using an industrial method to paint his surfaces. Painted on aluminum plates with automobile enamel, in a finely tuned monochrome, these works pointed to the pragmatics of hanging paintings. The standard stretcher is related to the size of the human body. Seen close-up, the area of color exceeds the viewer’s field of vision and makes an overview impossible. In so doing, it exacerbates the tendency of paintings to spread into infinity.

Though the