
Ready or Not or Ready and Not
"Ready or Not or Ready and Not" by Tauba Auerbach is a meticulously rendered work in gouache on paper laid on panel, showcasing the artist's fascination with systems, language, and visual paradox. The piece plays with duality and simultaneity, suggesting states of being that exist in tension or overlap, characteristic of Auerbach's broader investigation into logic, perception, and the structures underlying meaning. The rich, opaque quality of gouache lends the work a precise, almost typographic presence, reinforcing the conceptual weight embedded in its title.
- Medium
- gouache on paper laid on panel
- Location
- Phillips, Salt Lake City, UT
- Spotted At
- Auction House · PhillipsView on map
🔨 Auction Lot
Contemporary Art Day Sale
June 30, 2015
More by Tauba Auerbach
Artists in conversation

Mel Bochner
American · b. 1940

Bochner shares Auerbach's deep engagement with language as visual form and conceptual systems, often rendering words and logical propositions in gouache with precise, typographic clarity that mirrors the cerebral tension found in this piece.

Jasper Johns
American · b. 1930

Johns similarly investigates paradox, duality, and perceptual ambiguity through meticulously crafted works that treat language and symbols as objects of visual and philosophical scrutiny, producing the same intellectual and optical tension present here.

Kay Rosen
American · b. 1943

Rosen creates works that use language, logic, and typographic precision to construct visual paradoxes and layered meanings, sharing Auerbach's interest in the structures underlying words and the simultaneity of contradictory states rendered in a muted, controlled palette.
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