Claude Rutault

By the late 1990s Rutault had produced approximately 300 Definitions/Methods, each one a set of instructions rather than a fixed object. The critical innovation was the figure of the "undertaker", the collector or institution who takes on responsibility for realising the work. They choose the dimensions, the wall colour, the placement. The artist proposes; someone else disposes. This transfer of authorial control was not a gimmick. It was a serious critique of how painting accumulates meaning, market value, and signature weight.

Some of the Definitions/Methods have a theatrical edge. D/m 83, Suicide Painting No. 1 (1978^[1]), stipulated that a 100x100cm canvas be reduced by one-eighth each year for twenty-four years, stopping only if acquired or the artist died. D/m 112, Pile ou Face (Heads or Tails), introduced a game-like exchange between artist and collector. Travaux Publics (1984) took the work entirely outside galleries, with posters and guidebooks directing the public to private homes where canvases were installed.

Born in Trois-Moutiers in 1941^[1], Rutault came to his radical position via Figuration Critique, the French^[1] movement that made painting self-critical rather than self-promotional. His later practice was the logical extension of that instinct: if you want to prevent a painting from becoming a logo or a signature, make sure it looks different every time someone sees it.