Throughout his career, Rougemont produced numerous albums of drawings and sketches. One technique he regularly used was watercolour. The water-based painting technique is unrepentant, drying quickly to reveal the spontaneous brilliance of the artist. When working on paper, Rougemont would give free rein to his imagination. The paper medium was a point of departure for the artist. It was indeed through the medium’s flat surface that Rougemont was able to create a vision of volume and project himself into the third dimension to design sculptures and furniture pieces.

Rougemont was always fascinated by the pursuit of form and its evolution through space. The artist’s work in the
2000s was defined by his use of meandering, serpentine lines. These fluid, sinuous lines enabled the artist to explore the effects of colour, shade and light.

Indeed, these free, majestic forms can be found in Rougemont’s watercolours, where they carve through the space and overlap to build up over each other. Planted firmly in their backgrounds, these visions of potential future sculptures take root on the paper, their shadows lengthening their forms. These free forms can also be found in the furniture pieces designed by Rougemont.

In this watercolour from 2000’s, a green, sculpture-like form takes shape on the paper. The two-tone background gives the flat surface depth, allowing the shape to stand out like a sculpture in the round.

ROUGEMONT
Red and Grey – 2013 – Lacquered aluminium – H 47 cm.
Diane de Polignac Editions