Claude RUTAULT

In 1973, Claude Rutault painted a 20 x 20 cm canvas the same color as the wall in his kitchen. He quickly formalized this founding gesture with the first defi nition/method: “a stretched canvas painted the same color as the wall on which it’s hung. All commercially available formats can be used, be they rectangular, square, round or oval.” The de-finition/method is a text written by the artist that precedes the painting. It expresses a goal to be achieved. It is not just the simple statement of an idea, but rather a collection of instructions, of provisions formulated for the charge-taker. The charge-taker is the collector who acquires—or the curator who exhibits—and accepts the responsibility of implementing a de-finition/method. He is essential to the existence of the painting, for without him, the work remains in an unrealized state of possibility.

Selected solo exhibitions include:  d’où je viens où j’en suis où je vais, Musée National d’Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris (2015); des histoires sans fin, MAMCO, Musée d’art moderne et contemporain, Geneva, Switzerland (2013); Correspondance 16.  Georges Seurat / Claude Rutault, Musée d’Orsay, Paris, France (2007); (p)réparations, MAMCO, Musée d’art moderne et contemporain, Geneva, Switzerland (2006); les toiles et l’archer, Musée Bourdelle, Paris, France (2005); pintura, Pavillon Mies van der Rohe, Barcelona, Spain (2002); la peinture sort de sa réserve, Musée d’art Moderne,Villeneuve d’Ascq, France (1998); extraits, Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki, Finland (1992); claude rutault, exposition de peintures de…, Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris (1983).