Secret painting (1967-1968), by Mel Ramsden

One of the  tendencies in modern art has been the emphasis placed on the process of reception of art objects rather than on their production. 

The act of looking -invitation for the viewer to let the imagination play

 Conceptual artists pushed this further asking their reader/viewer to consider the mechanisms of representation rather than the thing being represented. 

Joseph Kosuth makes this very clear in his work 'One and Three Tables' 1965 from our collection. Here the table itself is presented, as it is, not as a representation, alongside it is a photograph of it taken in the site where it is showing and a dictionary definition of a table.

'Secret painting' makes playful reference to the history of monochrome painting. /Malevich painting his 'Black square' in 1915 /