Claude Rutault - The play on paint on a hopscotch board, 2009-1971

Since 1973, the work of Claude Rutault has developed around what he calls “definitions/methods” (abbreviated as “d/m” or “dm”), and follows the principle that d/m 1, the toile à l’unité, the canvas unit, is very clearly “a canvas stretched on a frame and painted the same color as the wall on which it hangs”.

This corpus of texts has given rise to a large number of developments on the part of the artist: painted realisations that he calls “actualisations”, as well as a large number of papers in which he comments on his own work. This sum of programmatic statements sets the limits of the work and the control, inscribing the painting in the present.

The idea for this book was born when Claude Rutault, in the d/m 208, considered the future ofmarelles, (hopscotches), a series on which he worked fromAugust 1971 to September 1975. This d/mexpresses the principle of repainting in grey, then in white, each of the artist’s works that are prior to definitions/methods.

The play of paint on the grid of a hopscotch proposes a reading of the definitions/methods from the first work in the hopscotch series, lamarelle n°1 of August 1971. The development of this series is contemporary with the reflection on painting, in March 1973, and fromthe writing of the first definitions/methods that followed.

The plates in the book are levels of reflection, or work areas, as are the texts of the definitions/methods, always sufficiently generalized to allow updating which willmake evident the specificity of the paintings. The forms of the hopscotch games (squares, rectangles, the small, top, single rectangle) are combined here like untranslatable words. These sketches are therefore to be read. The page order of the book follows that of the publication of Claude Rutault’s writings.

The edition is limited to 235 copies signed and numbered by the artist. Each includes twelve “plans de réflexion”, in a portfolio, five of them with cut-outs, and an accompanying text by Marie-Hélène Breuil.

Limited Edition
Size: 24 x 30 cm / 72 pages
Limited Edition: 205 copies numbered and signed
Publication date: June 2009
ISBN: 9782915837445

Special Edition
Serigraphs: 48 x 30 cm
Format: 24 x 30 cm / 72 pages
Extra-limited Edition: 30 copies with specifical and unique work by Claude Rutault, numbered and signed
Publication date: June 2009
ISBN: 9782915837445