French-based "abstract minimalist" Daniel Buren is well known for his trademark use of stripes, sized consistently at 8.7cm wide. His fascination with the motif has been materialised in the form of paintings, site specific installations and unauthorised public artworks, using striped awning canvases in France, and posting striped posters around Paris including various metro stations. He is perhaps best known for his black and white striped columns installed in a 3000 square metre area outside of the Palais Royal in Paris in 1986, called Les Deux Plateaux and nicknamed Colonnes de Buren.

Sometimes called a conceptual artist for his dealings with space and the gallery setting, Buren blocked the entrance to his first solo exhibition with one of his striped works. Of the Guggenheim Museum, where Buren has exhibited before, he says "[it] really kills a piece of art, primarily because it’s a work of art itself.”