Ugo Rondinone’s mesmerising target painting, VIERTERAPRILZWEITAUSENDUNDZWÖLF induces a profound state of hypnosis upon its viewers. Rondinone refers to works from this series as spiritual devices, in which time and space – themes central to his oeuvre – are used to emphasize the notion of existentialism. Time is a concept clearly identifiable within the artist’s work; it is an all-consuming circular loop, in which the past, present and future coexist. The artist’s fixation with time and space is embedded within his geometric and rhythmic motif, in addition to the work’s title, which dates the work – a means of categorisation as opposed to characterisation.

Rondinone's target painting’s, including VIERTERAPRILZWEITAUSENDUNDZWÖLF are suggestive of familiar shapes – the concentric repetition of a target, the blinding illumination of the yellow sun, or an eye-catching lens flare. As with his other target and mandala works, VIERTERAPRILZWEITAUSENDUNDZWÖLF lures the spectator into a meditative trance through brightly coloured, blurry rings which appear to pulsate creating the futuristic illusion of depth. The deceptively concave plane is fabricated by the electric glow and recursion of the perfectly circular contours. The viewer is bewitched by both the aesthetic beauty, and the infuriating inability to visually adjust their focus and sharpen the circles of colour, simultaneously.

The influence of artistic forbearers Kenneth Noland and Jasper Johns, is immediately apparent in Rondinone’s target paintings. It is through his interpretation of these recognisable subjects, that he acknowledges the significance of art history in his work. ‘If you do art today with relevance, then [artistic] movements … are naturally part of the information in this new work. Every artwork has its history and carries the whole information of art history. The importance is only as much as you can bring something now to that information database’ (Ugo Rondinone, quoted in Kristin Farr, ‘Mother Nature’s Son’, Juxtapoz, online).