dé-finition/méthode #178: rien à lire 1990

Claude Rutault has made ‘dé-finition/méthode #178: rien à lire’, which translates as 'nothing to read', by painting rectangular forms directly onto a wall. I'm thinking about the meditative, repetitive nature of the act, and how this could be a form of mark making, a form of writing and inscription. Rutault's decision to use the wall as a canvas challenges traditional notions of painting and its support. I can imagine him, with infinite patience, layering the paint, building up the surfaces, and creating subtle shadows and textures. These repeated shapes remind me of Sol Lewitt’s wall drawings but with a more hands-on approach. Artists are always looking at each other’s works, whether they know it or not! Rutault’s pale palette and the work’s quiet appearance invites us to consider painting as a process of conceptual inquiry as much as a visual experience. It suggests that meaning is not fixed but emerges through the act of making and seeing.