Le naufrage de la peinture 

Claude Rutault created *Le naufrage de la peinture* using an unusual method of painting directly onto the architecture of a room. Rutault used standard house paint, the kind you'd find at any hardware store. But instead of applying it to a canvas, he painted the walls and even the floor of the gallery space, in a uniform orange hue. Two white squares, like blank canvases, hang on one wall. The result collapses the distinction between art object and environment. The technique democratizes the idea of art making, using common materials and processes accessible to almost anyone. Yet the installation also requires considerable labor. The effect is not just aesthetic but social, as Rutault makes us reconsider the boundaries of art and its relationship to everyday life. He challenges the idea of artistic genius, placing value instead on the act of making itself. In doing so, he elevates the ordinary, suggesting that art can be found anywhere, in any material, if we are willing to look.