Begun in 1969 and completed around 1974, Allan McCollum’s “Constructed Paintings” issued from intelligible systems of repetition. The series predates McCollum’s critically influential and institutionally embraced cast “Plaster Surrogates,” 1982, by a decade. The unstretched paintings are assembled from many small square or rectangular pieces of canvas, joined with rubberized caulking into orderly and rhythmic abstract patterns—evoking references that range from architectural tile work to Helen Frankenthaler’s abstract compositions.

The largest piece in “Works 1970–73,” an exhibition drawn from