Soulages
50’s
Pierre Soulages (1919 – 2022) is undoubtedly the French people’s favourite artist: his retrospective at the Pompidou in 2009 had record attendance, his eponymous museum in Rodez has become a reference point and in 2016, his exhibition at the Louvre placed him among the greatest. Also, the national tribute paid to him when he died at the age of 102, made him a permanent part of our artistic heritage. For over 30 years, as a specialist in the second School of Paris, the Pascal Lansberg gallery has fervently defended Pierre Soulages. Maurice, Pascal’s father, while he was still a collector, was lucky enough to own a key painting dated 1957, now kept at the Fondation Gandur pour l’Art. This fascinating work had the power, he said, “to relax him from all his worries”. He looked forward to this moment of escape and contemplation that she gave him every evening, after a long day of work…
With this exhibition, the gallery pays tribute to Soulages for the third time, after two exhibitions organized during the artist’s lifetime, in 2009 and 2016. For this posthumous tribute, the gallery has chosen to focus its attention on his historical works dating from the 1950s, particularly sought after by collectors and produced before the well-known Outrenoir period which began in 1979.
In the aftermath of the war, Pierre Soulages paved the way for a new and unique abstraction characterized by a controlled gesture, discovering striking chiaroscuro and striking colors. The exhibition is unique and will create a surprise! Indeed, most of the works presented have been kept in private collections and are therefore unknown to the market and the general public. Around ten emblematic paintings are thus unveiled, among which spectacular large formats, as well as some works on paper including an exceptional “walnut stain”, a material offering qualities of opacity and transparency particularly interesting for Soulages. Collectors and the general public can practice the art of differentiating a work dating from 1952 from another from 1957 because Soulages’ compositions, rhythms and techniques evolved throughout the 1950s.
