Exact Ruler II (1974) depicts a stainless steel ruler, lying horizontally across a span of vertical wooden floorboards that fill the painting’s frame. It belongs to Sylvia Plimack Mangold’s series of paintings, made between the mid-1960s and the mid-1970s, comprising meticulous renderings of floors, often with rulers, graph paper, and masking tape. As they engage numerous art historical traditions, these paintings also model—and encourage—the practice of paying exquisite attention to one’s surroundings.
![Untitled (Studio Corner) [recto], Sylvia Plimack Mangold, 1972](https://api.nga.gov/iiif/24910c62-0d52-47d4-a787-9f5c9706f98a/full/!2400,2400/0/default.jpg)
