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Description: signed and dated 70 on the reverse

oil on canvas, unframed

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Dimensions: 122 by 122cm., 48 by 48in.

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Provenance: Waddington Galleries, London, whence purchased by the present owner, 1970

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Exhibited: London, Tate Gallery, Kenneth Martin: Retrospective, 1975, no.98, p.96, illustrated in the exhibition catalogue;
New Haven, Yale Centre for British Art, Kenneth Martin, 1979, no.57, illustrated in the exhibition catalogue, p.74;
London, Waddington Galleries, Chance & Order: The 6th William Townsend Lecture, 1979, no.5, illustrated in the exhibition catalogue, p.7;
Bochum, Galerie m, Kenneth Martin, 1980 (as 'Chance and order 4');
London, Serpentine Gallery, Arts Council of Great Britain, Kenneth Martin - The Late Paintings, 1985;
London, Whitechapel Art Gallery, Centenary Exhibition, 2001, unnumbered, illustrated in the exhibition catalogue, p.110;
London, Flowers Central, Modern Masters, 2003.

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Notes: This long and important series of works has its origin in a series of studies which Martin began in 1969. Using a square grid with equal numbers along each axis, the corresponding numbers were written on slips of paper and were then picked at random in pairs, giving the start and finish co-ordinates of each line, chance thus determining the length and orientation of each line. The paintings thus become a combination of chance and the hand of the artist in the execution of that process, the visually pleasing results taking on a third, independent, character.

The present painting is one of the very first works from the series and demonstrates the basic monochromatic form that these paintings took, before the later multi-coloured versions. With a distinguished exhibition history, Chance & Order (Green) 1970 is now appearing at auction for the first time since its purchase as a new painting by the present owner.