In 1971, as his works are being shown at the ARC section of the Museum of Modern Art of the City of Paris, Jean Rustin realises he must break with his past as an abstract painter.
Ever since, as he puts it :
« I don’t try to represent the world, nor to make use of it so as to paint fine pictures... I believe I still am some sort of an "abstract" painter who uses reality. »
Jean Rustin’s paintings may be commented to no end. I had rather quote some excerpts from his conversation with Michel Troche in 1984 (published by Equinoxe) :
[On light :] « it is the only important word in painting. Light is what creates Time on the canvas and silence. It isn’t the point of a picture, but it comes close to it…»
« I don’t have a grip on reality. Reality is terrible, loud. It talks, it rows, it screams, it shrieks a lot… Paintings don’t utter a word, they are silent… »
He ends with this dreadful sentence :
« I believe a canvas is finished when it doesn’t move any longer. »
The works shown at the Rustin Foundation, in Antwerp, Belgium, and, at a more humble scale, at the idées d’artistes Gallery invite us to share their silence.