Stéphane La Rue, Color as Illusion of Painting

It may seem paradoxical to conjure the pleasures of colour when introducing Stéphane La Rue’s famously minimal and formal work. Founded on the materials used, his propositions make few concessions to the gestures and seductions of painting. It is not a question here of isolating the essential aspects of his work (surface and form), but of drawing the gaze to a seemingly minor aspect which may become more apparent once the composition is established. Just as forms attract one’s attention, it seems to me that colours, whether applied on the surface or inherent to the chosen subjectile, offer to both the senses and the mind fertile ground for contemplation and thought, affording them a susceptibility to reasoning and reverie. This space, which seems saturated with calculation and reason, gives rise to the effects of freedom, play, and mobility characteristic of works in the making, precarious and animated.

His compositions are exacting — austere, precise, calculated to the millimetre. It is this spareness that determines their particular attraction and relevance. Counting on the essential, his works present themselves with a pertinence, truth, and vividness that attest to the artist’s commitment and demands the same of the spectator. Modern painting has persistently demonstrated that painting represents itself, a view reinforced by some current artists who faithfully explore this statement of the obvious to the detriment of the illusion of illusion. Such is the paradigm in which La Rue’s thought evolves, as it deals with the capacity of art to reflect on its means, its tricks, its results. His painting is concerned precisely with the process that leads to its realization; it invites us to participate and enjoy the result, as precarious as it may be. Indeed, despite the sense of stability resulting from his geometric forms, the artist lends them a quality of movement that leads mind and gaze to other outcomes.