François Morellet is an major contemporary artist. In the 1970s, this representative of radical Abstraction and conceptual processes turned his attention to the history of art in an attempt to return to his search for minimalism. For him, the language of abstraction can be combined with figuration and the consecrated works of the past can be brought back to life in modern works. He brings together opposites that modernity has set against each other, which is a recurring theme of contemporary art.  

Lightly n°4 is symbolic of these principles. The work represents latent and volume painting and at first view seems to be a monochrome canvas covered with strips of vertical neon lights. The work is actually a subtle tribute to the version of Monet's cathedral series owned by the Musée des Beaux-Arts. The illuminated neon lights project a ghostly shadow which reflects the outline of the monument as defined by the painter. Although in principle the reference is in itself eulogistic, it is also ironic due the inversion produced here with regard to the work of the painter. Monet portrayed the cathedral in sophisticated chromatic matter, while Morellet makes it appear through an ethereal shadow. Morellet lays claim to a conceptual approach with his word and mind games, at the expense of what was important to Monet, i.e. sensibility and pictorial authority. As a worthy heir of the insolent humour of Marcel Duchamp and the Dadaists, he 'demonetised' Monet and declared, 'My homages are damages'.