There are fifteen of Keith Tyson's History Paintings. Three are large, and thereare twelve smaller ones. This dozen, all of which are the same size, are fixedarrangements of identically sized vertical strips held within a frame. The strips arealuminium, powder coated with one of three colours -- black, red or green. Theframes, also atuminium, are the same green. The colours are those found on a roulettewheel, and when the paintings were composed the colour of each strip was arrivedat by successive spins of the wheel. If the ball ended in a black number, the stripwas black, and so on. There are forty-nine pieces in each painting, giving to the worksthe look of advertising hoardings made from many, three-sided rotating panels, andthis is especially so given that the colour of each vertical band has been determinedby chance.

There are fifteen of Keith Tyson's History Paintings. Three are large, and thereare twelve smaller ones. This dozen, all of which are the same size, are fixedarrangements of identically sized vertical strips held within a frame. The strips arealuminium, powder coated with one of three colours -- black, red or green. Theframes, also atuminium, are the same green. The colours are those found on a roulettewheel, and when the paintings were composed the colour of each strip was arrivedat by successive spins of the wheel. If the ball ended in a black number, the stripwas black, and so on. There are forty-nine pieces in each painting, giving to the worksthe look of advertising hoardings made from many, three-sided rotating panels, andthis is especially so given that the colour of each vertical band has been determinedby chance. There is no discernible pattern in any of the complete paintings, so thetemptation is to think that somehow the strips have been turning and have got outof sync, leading to the reds and blacks and greens getting a little muddled up.

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