Works in a series pull the rug out from under their own uniqueness. As Rosalind Krauss has argued splendidly, they undermine the whole myth of artistic originality. They cast doubt on the notion of solitary inspirations from a lonely genius. I have rephrased Krauss's insight so that, I believe, it holds up. Yet pushed to its limits, like a series in its own right, her argument against originality is way too dogmatic.
Modernism necessarily grounds diverse aims and achievements.
A series' very existence might declare an artist's special breakthrough on a grander scale than any one painting ever could. Modernism does not simply dissolve artistic production into the mass market. What is at stake is the very definition of creativity, the very function of an avant-garde. A series puts these terms in doubt while recreating them in its own image. A series is first of all an artistic manifesto.