SwissArtGallery · Documented identity
French painter and printmaker Pierre Soulages, born in Rodez in 1919, makes the light arising from the surface states of black a major focus of his pictorial research. At eighteen, he goes to Paris to prepare for the drawing teaching qualification and the entrance examination for the Beaux-Arts; although admitted, he decides not to enrol and returns to Rodez. From 1946, he is able to devote himself entirely to painting and settles in the Paris suburbs. His work is shown in exhibitions in Paris and across Europe in 1948, notably in several German museums. The following year, he holds his first solo exhibition at the Lydia Conti gallery in Paris, while his works are included in group exhibitions in New York, London, São Paulo and Copenhagen. Between 1949 and 1952, he creates three sets for theatre and ballet and produces his first etchings at the Lacourière workshop.
Museum retrospectives then become more frequent: the first take place in 1960 in Hanover, Essen, Zurich and The Hague. At the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, in 1966, his canvases are stretched between floor and ceiling for the first time using steel cables. His work also extends to other supports: in 1968, he creates a ceramic wall with the Mégard workshop for a building in Pittsburgh. In 1979, at the MNAM–Centre Georges Pompidou, he presents his first single-pigment paintings, based on the reflection of light by the surface states of black. This research is later referred to by the terms « noir-lumière » and « outrenoir ». From 1987 to 1994, he creates the 104 stained-glass windows of the abbey church of Conques.
The link with Rodez is also evident in the donations made with his wife Colette to the communauté d’agglomération du Grand Rodez: 500 works in 2005, including the printmaking oeuvre, preparatory works for the stained-glass windows of Conques and paintings, followed by fourteen additional paintings in December 2012, made between 1946 and 1986. In Montpellier, the Musée Fabre dedicates a room in 2007 to the donation of twenty paintings made by the artist to the city, covering the period from 1951 to 2006. In October 2009, the Centre Pompidou presents a retrospective of his work across more than 2,000 m². The Musée Soulages is inaugurated in Rodez in May 2014, with the temporary exhibition « Outrenoir en Europe, musées et fondations ».
This profile brings together identity references for Pierre Soulages and paintings, drawings and works on paper documented in auction catalogues.
Germann · Kornfeld · Lempertz
References include catalogue entries and available results; they do not all represent completed sales. Attributed works and special lots are excluded from the priced results.
Tusche auf Karton auf Leinwand
Ohne Titel
Tusche auf Karton auf Leinwand
Auction date : 2023-12-01
Published result : 378000 EUR
Including buyer’s premium
Estimate : 160000
View the lot at the auction house ↗
Oil on canvas
Peinture, 14 avril 1957
Öl auf Leinwand.
Date to be documented
Catalogue reference — sale not confirmed
View the lot at the auction house ↗Indian ink on Aussedat Annecy wove paper
Date to be documented
Catalogue reference — sale not confirmed
Estimate : CHF 30000
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Oil on canvas
Peinture, 31 août 1986
Öl auf Leinwand.
Date to be documented
Catalogue reference — sale not confirmed
View the lot at the auction house ↗SwissArtGallery documentary note based on the cited sources. Titles, media and qualifications are provided in the profile language; the original catalogue wording remains available in each record.
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