#Pierre Soulage

[keepingitneutral]

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

[abstracteddistractions]

Pierre Soulage, “Peinture 130 x 102 cm, 22 juillet 2020.” 

For more than four decades, Mr. Soulages worked every possible variation on black.

Credit: Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/ADAGP, Paris, via LGDR

[moodboardmix]

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.

Peinture 65 x 92 cm, 9 février 1960, 1960, signed; signed and dated 9 Fev 60 on the reverse, oil on canvas, 65 by 92 cm, 25 9/16 by 36 1/4 in.  © Bonhams 2001-2020.

[heavensdoorways]

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.

Preferring to suspend the paintings like walls, he uses wires to hang them in the middle of the room, "I always liked paintings to be walls rather than windows. When we see a painting on a wall, it's a window, so I often put my paintings in the middle of the space to make a wall. A window looks outside, but a painting should do the opposite—it should look inside of us"

Untitled, 1977, Vinyl paint on cardboard, 42 9/10 × 28 7/10 in | 109 × 73 cm.

[micmacplanet]

Pierre Soulage c’est cool!..non ça coule!

[garadinervi]

Pierre Soulages, Peinture 195 x 130 cm, 2 juin 1953, (oil on canvas), 1953 [Centre Pompidou, Paris. © Adagp, Paris. Photo: Philippe Migeat/Centre Pompidou]

[nobrashfestivity]

Pierre Soulages Peinture 162 x 181 cm, 5 Avril 2005 Exhibited at Robert Miller Gallery, Spring 2005 acrylic on canvas

[rearte2]

by Pierre Soulages, 1977

[topcat77]

Sérigraphie n° 18

Pierre Soulages - 1988

[thunderstruck9]

Pierre Soulages (French, 1919-2023), Peinture 263 x 181 cm, 2 juillet 2012 (tripych), 2012. Acrylic on canvas, 263 × 181 cm.

[artpictural]

Pierre Soulages posant au milieu de ses œuvres par Hubert Fanthomme le 8 octobre 1992.

[disease]

PEINTURE, 13 DÉCEMBRE 1985 PIERRE SOULAGES // 1985 [oil on panel, in 2 parts | overall: 165 x 102 cm.]

[abstracteddistractions]

Pierre Soulages’s “Peinture 195 x 155 cm, 7 février 1957.” 

Credit: Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/ADAGP, Paris, via LGDR

[fuskida]

Lithographie no.2, 1957 by Pierre Soulages

[hommedessept]

Pierre Soulages (born 1919) Lithographie 37 - 1974

[theegoist]

Pierre Soulages (French, 1919-2022) - Lithographie No. 17, color lithograph, 33,8 x 25,9 cm (1964)