Tableau Clous

In 1960 Aubertin begun to produce monochrome nail images. Until 1971 he worked on the series of red nail images in four different phases. In the first phase to 1962, he produced images in which the nails were driven through a thickly applied paint composition and almost disappeared under the red color. In the second phase to 1965 he hit long steel pins from the back through the wood panel that permeated nail tips and the splintered wood on the front were covered with red paint. The third phase, which lasted until 1967, had geometric, crystalline or star-shaped nail structures. The fourth and final phase lasted until 1971. Nail images with thin fluorescent paint were created.