Claude Rutault's entire definitions/methods from 1973 to 2016, in English language.
"Claude Rutault first used the term
definition/method in 1978, and he put all his work under that generic title from then on, through the definitive change had come as early as 1973. In March of that year, he painted a small canvas the same grey as the wall, which gave rise to his iconic phrase: "a canvas stretched on stretchers and painted the same color as the wall on which it is hung." From that principle, he developed short, directive texts proposing specific works. They were first called constructions and then definitions/methods, which were later numbered. Each
definition/method is a proposition to be actualized, in most cases by an act of painting that conforms to certain parameters controlling the relation of the canvas or canvases to the wall. They are based on the traditions of presentation, the history of art, and the institution of the exhibition. Rutault later extended the principle to include non-painted, repainted, and stacked canvases. A collector, either private or public, must abandon any fetishistic relationship to the work and choose the place and way to actualize it."
Extract from
Claude Rutault – L'Inventaire, Marie-Hélène Breuil, Mamco, 2015.
During a six-month residency (1977-1978) at PS1 in New York, Claude Rutault felt the need to publish his work in English. His motivation to have the entirety of the definitions/methods translated remained intact until his death in 2022.
mfc-michèle didier gallery accompanied Claude Rutault to complete this work and to carry out the translation of this "long text", to produce it and to publish it as a mirror of the
Mamco publication produced in 2016 in its French version.
Limited edition of 250 numbered copies.
Since 1973, the French conceptual painter Claude Rutault (1941-2022) has used a simple method to create new artworks, using statements which he calls "definitions/methods", later abbreviated to "d/m", then, more recently "dm". A definition/method is a text, describing a procedure that makes it possible to realize a painting by the artist.
Using the original statement: "a canvas, stretched on a frame, painted the same colour as the wall on which it is hung", Claude Rutault has produced a large body of written work which argue for the specific nature of painting through an analysis of its materiality, its history and its different functions.
