Pierre Soulages (24 December 1919 – 26 October 2022)
Pierre Soulages is considered a major figure of post-war European abstraction, alongside Hans Hartung, George Mathieu, Serge Poliakoff and Jean-Paul Riopelle.
He’s particularly renowned for his “outrenoir” (“beyond black”) series of paintings, which feature matte and glossy black fields interrupted by ridges, scores, and gashes; the artist is interested in how black paint absorbs and reflects light.
Since making his gallery debut in 1947, Soulages has exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art, The Louvre and the State Hermitage Museum (he was the first living artist to show at the institution), and his work has been acquired for the collections of the Centre Pompidou, The Guggenheim, Tate Modern, and the National Gallery of Art in Washington.
Applying the paint in thick layers, Soulages' painting technique includes using objects such as spoons, tiny rakes and bits of rubber to work away at the painting, often making scraping, digging or etching movements depending on whether he wants to evoke a smooth or rough surface. The texture that is then produced either absorbs or rejects light, breaking up the surface of the painting by disrupting the uniformity of the black.
LITHOGRAPHIE N° 33. Lithograph printed in shades of blue, 1974, signed in pencil and numbered 11/95, on Arches wove paper, framed. Image: 523 by 458 mm 20½ by 18 in. Sheet: 744 by 558 mm 29¼ by 22 in. Courtesy: Sotheby’s
