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Lot Essay
This work is registered in the Serge Poliakoff Archives under no. 963056.
Painted in 1963, Composition bleue, rouge et mauve exudes the compositional strength and understanding of form that is so characteristic of Serge Poliakoff's mature work. A professional musician until 1952, Poliakoff's paintings have a graceful asymmetry that results from his desire to create a picture in which all the elements - colour, proportion, form - are completely resolved. This poise and balance, what he referred to as le silence complet, is evident in how the irregular slabs of warm colour interlock on the canvas. There is a controlled energy to the piece; refined tonal contrasts and carefully modeled organic shapes create a painting that is arrestingly fresh and expressive. The work reflects the artist's belief that 'space, not the artist, must model the forms. They must be part-sculpture, part-architecture. Geometric form must turn into organic form, and it's the inward pressure of space that does that. Space makes form - not the other way round.' (S. Poliakoff quoted in Serge Poliakoff, Retrospective 1938-1963, exh. cat, Whitechapel Gallery, London, 1963, p. 15).
The brilliance of the colours employed by Poliakoff in this work testifies to the influence of his long standing friendships with the early exponents of abstraction, notably Sonia and Robert Delaunay and Vasily Kandinsky. 'If you let it, your colour will take charge of you.' Poliakoff once said. 'Similarly with your forms: the spontaneous form for an artist to use is always an organic one, but you've got to be in control of it. A child will use all the colours in the box at once, instinctively, and if you don't want to make that same mistake you've got to on studying hard and for a long time. There is no such a thing as a system of pictorial construction, but there are certain universal laws that you can find out for yourself if you study the big masters long enough. It's the law, not the 'system', that counts.' (Ibid., p. 13). By the early 1960s Poliakoff's reputation as one of the leading painters of his day was established; he had had numerous international solo exhibitions throughout the 1950s, and in 1962 a room of the French Pavilion at the Venice Biennale was dedicated to his work and he was awarded the Order of 'Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres'. In 1963 he had his first major retrospective at The Whitechapel Art Gallery, London.
Painted in 1963, Composition bleue, rouge et mauve exudes the compositional strength and understanding of form that is so characteristic of Serge Poliakoff's mature work. A professional musician until 1952, Poliakoff's paintings have a graceful asymmetry that results from his desire to create a picture in which all the elements - colour, proportion, form - are completely resolved. This poise and balance, what he referred to as le silence complet, is evident in how the irregular slabs of warm colour interlock on the canvas. There is a controlled energy to the piece; refined tonal contrasts and carefully modeled organic shapes create a painting that is arrestingly fresh and expressive. The work reflects the artist's belief that 'space, not the artist, must model the forms. They must be part-sculpture, part-architecture. Geometric form must turn into organic form, and it's the inward pressure of space that does that. Space makes form - not the other way round.' (S. Poliakoff quoted in Serge Poliakoff, Retrospective 1938-1963, exh. cat, Whitechapel Gallery, London, 1963, p. 15).
The brilliance of the colours employed by Poliakoff in this work testifies to the influence of his long standing friendships with the early exponents of abstraction, notably Sonia and Robert Delaunay and Vasily Kandinsky. 'If you let it, your colour will take charge of you.' Poliakoff once said. 'Similarly with your forms: the spontaneous form for an artist to use is always an organic one, but you've got to be in control of it. A child will use all the colours in the box at once, instinctively, and if you don't want to make that same mistake you've got to on studying hard and for a long time. There is no such a thing as a system of pictorial construction, but there are certain universal laws that you can find out for yourself if you study the big masters long enough. It's the law, not the 'system', that counts.' (Ibid., p. 13). By the early 1960s Poliakoff's reputation as one of the leading painters of his day was established; he had had numerous international solo exhibitions throughout the 1950s, and in 1962 a room of the French Pavilion at the Venice Biennale was dedicated to his work and he was awarded the Order of 'Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres'. In 1963 he had his first major retrospective at The Whitechapel Art Gallery, London.