PAINTING: 'PRIMITIVE WO MEN' 2007-2008
In these works from 2007/8 Le Rougetel depicts men and women, or as he prefers to say 'WO MEN'. 'Primitive Man', 'Primitive Woman' and the 4 'Primitive Heads' were influenced by Dubuffet. He built up the images using polyfiller, paint, hands, scrapers and brushes. They act as sketches for the series of primitive ceramic heads that led to the installation 'Thank gods for Christmas'. They evoke a primitve aesthetic. The triptych 'Primitive Page 3 Girls' is a good example of a combination of process coming together to inform and become part of the work. He paints image after image, wipes it out, starts again, paints over, starts again; electric sands down the canvas re-paints and so on and so on. You can see some of the painted over and wiped out images in CONTEXTY. This triptych also uses the double bar framing system where screws are drilled through the painting into prepared 2 by 2 wood. The effect is to offer another final reality to the painting as well as eliminating negative space at the back of the paintings if they are hung conventionally - in fact like 'RBY Primitive Scarlet Rocks!' they can stand alone too, as objects, figures in their own right.
