La vi(ll)e est belle Prosper Legault

Prosper Legault (b. 1994 in Bordeaux, FR) presents his first solo exhibition La vi(ll)e est belle with Ruttkowski;68 in Paris.

Since one cannot escape from the world, then one must love it. Prosper Legault has made this his philosophy. He skilfully blends reference points of artistic avant-gardes with accidental poetry found in late-night grocery stores. He effortlessly traverses time zones without changing neighbourhoods, speaks all the languages of the world by dissecting restaurant menus, transitioning from Robert de Niro to Robert Rauschenberg as if smoothly changing topics mid-conversation.

The artist’s street rhymes are paintings without pigment; they are ‘assisted sculptures’—a nod to certain ready-made concepts. Each work in the exhibition opens a door to nested, independent yet interconnected stories, reflecting the common threads of daily life. They all possess a fortuitous beauty akin to what delighted Lautréamont—a poet more of ink and paper than scrap materials. He authored the famous expression, often twisted, perfectly fitting this context: ‘Beautiful as the chance encounter, on a dissecting table, between a sewing machine and an umbrella.’ Truthfully, the artist could have been a companion to most 20th-century avant-garde movements if not for their shared commitment—to reconnect art with reality, pulling it out from museums back into the city, the crowds, to everyone.

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