Pierre Soulages, whose exploratory exploration of black color established him as France’s preeminent post-war abstract painter, died Wednesday in the port city of Sète in southern France. he was 102 years old.
His death in hospital was confirmed by Dominique Lévy and Emilio Steinberger, co-founder and senior partner of LGDR, the gallery representing Soulages in the United States.
Soulages gained notoriety in the late 1940s with a series of bold calligraphy works using walnut stain on paper and, in some cases, tar on glass.Their muted tones contrasted with the bright colors favored by the adherents of Tatyism, the answer to French Abstract Expressionism. told interview magazine In 2014, his paintings “looked like milked flies.”
In his work in the 1960s and 70s, black bands were scraped away to reveal colored backgrounds, but the overall composition (with a broad brush, often likened by critics to Franz Klein’s calligraphic marks) created dark slashes) remained consistent. his previous work. James Johnson Sweeney, curator of paintings at the Museum of Modern Art in New York from the 1930s through his 40s, described Mr. Soulages’ striking, static forms as “a chord played on a piano.”
Mr Soulages quickly developed a reputation in Europe. His work was shown at his Biennale in Venice in 1952 and at his first documenta exhibition in Kassel, West Germany in 1955. An exhibition organized by Leo Castelli.
In 1954, Mr Soulages began exhibiting at the Samuel Coutts Gallery. The gallery has played an important role not only in promoting Abstract Expressionism but also in advocating for contemporary European artists. He titled his own works by size and date and adopted the practice of hanging paintings from his ceiling.
After struggling with canvas in his Parisian atelier in 1979, Soulages had a new appreciation for the possibilities of black paint. Hands up, he retired for the night.
The next morning he said. Pompidou Center interviewer In Paris in 2009, “I realized that it’s not the black that makes the picture come to life, but the light that reflects off the black surface.” Moreover, the light came from the greatest lack of light: color. “
“One morning it’s silvery gray,” he told critic Bernard Thayson in 1979. Otherwise, it may take on a coppery brown color. In fact, it always corresponds to the light that hits it. One day I even saw it green. There was a storm and the sun was blazing on trees not far away.
Pierre Jean-Louis Germain Soulages was born on December 24, 1919 in Rodez, Southern France. His father Aman was a carriage maker who died when his son was five years old. Pierre was raised by his mother Aglae his Zoe. Julie (corps) Soulage and her older sister.
From an early age he was fascinated by prehistoric art, especially French and Spanish cave paintings, and after graduating from his local lycée, he went to Paris to study painting under a private tutor. He entered the prestigious Ecole des Beaux Arts, but after he touched the curriculum he returned to Rodez. “That was all I hated,” he said told in an interview.
With the outbreak of World War II, he was called up for military service. After the fall of France in 1940, he went to Montpellier, studied at the city’s art school, met and married his classmate Colette Lawrence. She later managed his studio and served as a liaison with museums and other institutions throughout his career.
When Nazi Germany occupied Montpellier, he secured false papers and, trying to avoid forced labor in Germany, found work in a vineyard.
After the war, he returned to Paris, where he exhibited his walnut stains on paper at the Salon des Lindespandans in 1947, and participated in several important exhibitions in Europe, supported by the noted avant-garde artist Francis Picabia. Did.
In the United States, he participated in the 1951 traveling exhibition Advancing French Art, and in 1953 his work was included in the Younger European Artists exhibition at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and in The New Decade at the same museum. rice field. of contemporary art in 1955.
In 1987, Soulages, who had worked and lived in a set home designed by him and his wife for over 60 years, Romanesque abbey church of Sainte-Foy in Conques, just north of Rodez. Rather than designing a stained glass window, I devised a series of translucent panes, surrounded by black iron bars, varying in thickness to diffuse and modulate incoming light. The windows were installed in 1994.
In 2001, he became the first contemporary artist to exhibit at the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia. In 2009, to mark his 90th birthday, a career retrospective was held at his Center Pompidou. 2019, Levi Gorvi Gallery, New York celebrated the 100th anniversary of his birth Exhibition “Pierre Soulages: Century”.
The donation of his 500 works Soulages Museum in RodezPresident François Hollande, who attended the occasion, paid tribute to Soulages, calling him “the greatest living artist in the world”.
A widower, Surage continued to work at a brisk pace throughout his 90s.
“I’m only thinking about what I’m going to do tomorrow,” he told The New York Times in 2014. “And tomorrow I want to paint.
Alex Traub contributed to the report.