The work presented here follows the chromatic scheme used by the artist since 1979. The format, more sober than the monumental canvases to which the artist is accustomed, offers a more intimate dimension to this work. The brown, beige and black tones compose a harmony inherent to his style. Produced in 1981, the canvas adopts the horizontal and vertical lines corresponding to the artist's pictorial research. Indeed, since 1955, Pierre Soulages has used broader and more incisive brushstrokes. The painter is in perpetual search of the gesture which will exult the audacity of his artistic production. This is notably achieved through the use of walnut stain, a natural colorant extracted from walnut bark, which gives the paint the brown tint found here.
PIERRE SOULAGES (born in 1919) Peinture 102 x 81 cm, 30 mai 1981, 1981 Oil on canva 102.3 x 80.3 cm
This pigment is regularly used, especially in calligraphy, a discipline valued by the artist. The chromatic trio hems the walnut stain, by contrasts of matter, intersecting the zones of transparency and opacity of the paint. It produces a transcendent play of light to which the viewer must submit to experience the canvas. The technique is simple; he scrapes the material on the canvas in order to reveal its transparency, creating in places spaces of emptiness or accumulation of material. The covering of the canvas can be partial or total and highlights this very personal technique. This work of Pierre Soulages is thus part of the continuity of a perpetual artistic research, which finds its source in its relationship with the light, and which will lead, then to the unique use of the Outrenoir on the canvas. In addition to this singular technique making the artist instantly identifiable, Soulages' work is a meditative quest. Thus, he lets himself be guided by the freedom of his brush, granting a creative force to each of his works.
Pierre Soulages will be honoured by the public and institutions on the occasion of his 100th birthday. Indeed, the Louvre Museum has decided to organise an exceptional exhibition in Paris entitled "Soulages at the Louvre" from 11 December 2019 to 9 March 2020 in the Salon Carré. Only two other living artists have had this immense privilege: Picasso and Chagall. This major exhibition definitively places Pierre Soulages and his work among the greatest artists of the last hundred years.
CONTEMPORARY ART
Auction Wednesday 2 November 2022, at 4pm Aguttes Neuilly
Ophélie Guillerot Head of the Contemporary Art Department +33 1 47 45 93 02 • guillerot@aguttes.com
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