dé-finition/méthode #506: la photographie n’est que l’ombre de la peinture 2010

This piece, dé-finition/méthode #506, by Claude Rutault, makes you think about painting as a process, an ongoing experiment with color and surface. Rutault’s work isn’t just about what you see, but how you see it. There's a flat yellow plane that dominates, then an opening, like a window, revealing a contrasting gray interior. The yellow feels almost like a mask, or a screen. The paint is applied smoothly, almost industrially, which adds to the sense of detachment. What strikes me most is the tension between the flatness of the yellow and the illusion of depth created by the opening. It makes you question what is real, what is surface, and what lies beneath. It’s like a conversation between abstraction and representation, where neither fully wins out. I think of someone like Blinky Palermo, who used a similar kind of reductive language, but here Rutault is questioning the very nature of painting itself. It embraces the ambiguity, inviting us to bring our own perspectives and experiences to complete the work.