Pierre Soulges, a French artist known for his black abstract paintings passed away on October 26, 2022 (local time) at the age of 102.
He was one of the most successful French artists of the post-war period. Once hailed as “the greatest living artist in the world”, Soulges was a member of the School of Paris and the first contemporary artist to exhibit at the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg. Soulges was known for his “beyond black” creations, which takes monochrome painting to a new level. Black is a theme in his works, however, he not only uses black, but reshapes the color by revealing light. “Black has always been my foundation since I was a kid”, the artist mentioned in an interview with the New York Times in 2014. He enjoyed painting with a brush and ink since he was 6 years old. When his sister’s friend asked him what he was painting, he replied “snow”.
Born in Rodez, France in 1919, Soulages had a strong interest in the prehistoric art of the region and was fascinated by mysterious stone carvings. At the age of 17, he assisted in local archaeological research. He then became interested in cave murals and studied animal drawings in murals painted with charcoal. After that, the artist’s creative colors hardly deviated from the elements used in the cave murals– red, black, and ochre, which indirectly influenced his development with black painting. Soulages then studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Montpellier and met Colette Llaurens, a classmate who was as interested in pre-Renaissance art as he was. The two of them were like-minded and decided to get married in 1942. Llaurens was also his work partner. In order to avoid being expelled to Germany during the Nazi occupation of France, Soulges pretended to be a winemaker, and the couple settled in Paris after World War II.
In 1947, he publically displayed his works for the first time. Unlike other paintings in the exhibition, his were dark and stood out. At the time, everyone was talking about “who is the country boy who painted this black painting?”. After that, his works in Paris began to gain attention. Avant-garde artist Francis Picabia encouraged him and he also attracted the attention of American curator James Johnson Sweeny, who brought his works to New York to exhibit. In 1957, Soulages won the Windsor prize in Paris, a notable international recognition. In the same year, the artist also held his first solo exhibition at Kootz Gallery. By the 1960s, the artist’s works had become well-known among European and American countries. In 1966, the curator James Johnson planned a retrospective exhibition for him at The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.
Soulages used black in his works to express the power of contrast with other colors. By 1979, he created a work that was no longer just black, but the reflection of light on a dark surface, thus forming a new space on a flat canvas. He named this new space “outre-noir”. At this point, “light” was frequently used in his practice. His practice had extended from the original interpretation of color to the expression of light, texture, shape, and composition. There is no symbolism in the image, making the form and composition more distinct. The artist’s works directly react to the pigment, using the viscosity, translucency, and color to construct his unique style. As an European artist, Soulages proposed a new interpretation of abstract expressionism. In the past, he was told that abstract expressionism could only be understood by Americans, but he advocated that art should be understood by anyone.
Soulages was already well-known all over the world in the 1950s. Since his participation in the 26th Venice Biennale in 1952, he has held exhibitions at the Guggenheim Museum in New York in 1953 and 1959. His works have attracted much attention. In 2014, he donated hundreds of works to the Musée Soulages, which opened that year. His works are collected by more than 100 art institutions, including The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), Tate Modern in London, The National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C., as well as others.
Top photo: Artist Pierre Soulages © Wikiart.org
Photo 2 left: Pierre Soulages, Painting, 1948-49 © 2022 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris
Photo 2 top right: Pierre Soulages, Peinture 202 x 143 cm, 1967 © Pierre Soulages
Photo 2 middle right: Pierre Soulages, Peinture 162 x 130 cm, 9 juillet 1961, 1961. Artwork: © Pierre Soulages, DACS 2020
Photo 2 bottom right: Pierre Soulages, Painting, November 20, 1956 © 2018 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris
