At first glance, Byron Kim's 275-panel work, Synecdoche, looks like a gigantic display of foundation colors at a department-store makeup counter. And, in fact, each of these monochrome, oil-on-wax panels is based on the skin color of an individual. Kim began painting these synecdochical portraits of family and friends in 1991. Soon he was approaching strangers in the park or at the library, spending about 20 minutes with each to match paint to skin tone. He also accepted commissions, making portraits of family groups and of other artists, like Brice Marden and Vija Celmins. Each panel measures 8 by 10 inches, which, as Temkin points out, are the typical dimensions of a photographic head shot. As a whole, the work (which is an ongoing project) gives new meaning to the concept of "local color," elegantly infusing the language of pure abstraction with political content.

While Synecdoche has certain elements in common with earlier works in the show—the use of found color; the arbitrary, gridlike arrangement—it doesn't fit neatly into Temkin's framework. This may be because Kim and other younger conceptualists are less programmatic than earlier generations in their use of ready-made color. Their work is less didactic because they have less to prove: By now, the color-chart sensibility has become something that younger artists simply take for granted.