RÉMY ZAUGG (Courgenay 1943–2005 Basel) MÜDES BILD MÜDE. Enamel on canvas. On the reserve with the directional arrow. 52 × 38 cm. Provenance: - Galerie Gisele Linder, Basel. - Purchased from the above in 1997, private collection Switzerland. - By descent to the present owner, private collection Switzerland. The present work is an example of Remy Zaugg's experiment in translating painting into language. The three words MÜDES BILD MÜDE stand out in an impasto paint with a whitish primer. Here he has recourse to a simple script without ornamentation. The texture of the three words reflects such a degree of clarity and precision that one might at first mistake them for a silkscreen. In fact, Zaugg has been working intensively with this printing technique since the 1970s, even considering it a contemporary alternative to painting. In his search for a new form of monochrome, he created, among other things, monochrome overpainted pictures, initially in an ethereal light blue. Later, strong colour contrasts would find their way onto Zaugg's canvases. In our work, however, the artist restricts himself to the various effects of the white tone, which could not be more different. The background, painted with a brushstroke, has little in common with the almost immaculate surface of the words which look as though they are printed. Only the colour provides a sense of unity to the work, causing the viewer to question their perception time and again until the very end, and in this way represents an impressive example of Zaugg's conceptual critique of human perception