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Lot Essay
‘Black, I’ve always loved. ... It has always been the foundation of my palette. It is the absence of colour the most intense, the most violent, which gives an intense and violent presence in the colours, even white, as a tree makes the sky blue.’
–Pierre Soulages
‘I made these [paintings] because I found that the light reflected by the black surface elicits certain emotions in me. These aren’t monochromes. The fact that light can come from the colour which is supposedly the absence of light is already quite moving, and it is interesting to see how this happens.’
–Pierre Soulages
The deep and glossy black surface of Pierre Soulages’ monolithic painting, Peinture 81 cm x 130 cm, 1er Mars 1987, draws the viewer into a pensive calm. Its monochromatic exterior is interrupted only by a series of scrapes, carved into the painting’s surface at irregular intervals. These primitive markings activate the work, catching and reflecting the surrounding light which flits across the surface like a syncopated rhythm. Known as the ‘painter of black,’ Soulages is renowned for his innovative approach to painting which contemplates the fluctuating effects of light on black paint, as well as the varying emotions this subsequently rouses in the spectator (https://frieze. com/article/pierre-soulages [accessed 12th January 2018]). This work fits into his self-titled body of ‘Outrenoir’ works: approximately translating to Beyond Black, this practice explores the transformative qualities of black depending on variable factors such as paint density, texture, application technique, lighting conditions and viewpoint. Elaborating on the term in a 2014 interview, Soulages stated, ‘In French, you say “outre-Manche,” “beyond the Channel,” to mean England, or “outre-Rhine,” “beyond the Rhine,” to mean Germany. In other words, “beyond black” is a different country from black’ (P. Soulages, quoted in ‘Pierre Soulages: Interview by Z. Stillpass,’ Interview Magazine, May 2014). Indeed black, for Soulages, is never simply black. Instead this colour – or rather absence of colour – gives Soulages the artistic agency to express and elicit, provoke and incite an emotive response in the beholder. His works become interactive entities, which metamorphose under the gaze of the viewer depending on their position and the type of light. ‘I made these [paintings] because I found that the light reflected by the black surface elicits certain emotions in me,’ Soulages has explained; ‘These aren’t monochromes. The fact that light can come from the colour which is supposedly the absence of light is already quite moving, and it is interesting to see how this happens’ (P. Soulages, quoted in ‘Pierre Soulages: Interview by Z. Stillpass,’ Interview Magazine, May 2014).
In his teenage years, Soulages became fascinated with prehistoric times. He was infatuated by the sense of intrigue offered by this distant and unknown past, and inspired by the 20,000 year-old cave paintings of Lascaux, discovered in 1940, and, later, the even older cave art found in Chauvet en Ardèche in 1994: proof that from the dawn of time, mankind have been driven by a compulsion to create. He strove to convey this raw and primal immediacy in his work, opting for a pure pictorial language, stripped of all connotations to the external world. In this work, the vast expanse of black paint is broken by the scratches and scrapes in the surface, as if in homage to the ancient cave paintings he so admired. Indeed, the very titles of his paintings, all of which abide by the formula, Peinture (Painting) measurement, date, emphasis the fact that these works are not intended as mirror-like reflections on nature, nor illusory windows on to the world. They speak, rather, of art, not artifice; of presence, and not pretense. ‘I’m always shocked to hear people speak of progress in the history of painting with, for instance, the invention of perspective, or the illusion of depth,’ Soulages has asserted; ‘To think that for centuries humans didn’t take depth into account seems a little stupid. For me, art is anything but an illusion, it is presence’ (P. Soulages quoted in P. Ungar, Soulages in America, New York, 2014, p. 35). Certainly, in Peinture 81 cm x 130 cm, 1er Mars 1987, this essential presence is majestically evoked.
–Pierre Soulages
‘I made these [paintings] because I found that the light reflected by the black surface elicits certain emotions in me. These aren’t monochromes. The fact that light can come from the colour which is supposedly the absence of light is already quite moving, and it is interesting to see how this happens.’
–Pierre Soulages
The deep and glossy black surface of Pierre Soulages’ monolithic painting, Peinture 81 cm x 130 cm, 1er Mars 1987, draws the viewer into a pensive calm. Its monochromatic exterior is interrupted only by a series of scrapes, carved into the painting’s surface at irregular intervals. These primitive markings activate the work, catching and reflecting the surrounding light which flits across the surface like a syncopated rhythm. Known as the ‘painter of black,’ Soulages is renowned for his innovative approach to painting which contemplates the fluctuating effects of light on black paint, as well as the varying emotions this subsequently rouses in the spectator (https://frieze. com/article/pierre-soulages [accessed 12th January 2018]). This work fits into his self-titled body of ‘Outrenoir’ works: approximately translating to Beyond Black, this practice explores the transformative qualities of black depending on variable factors such as paint density, texture, application technique, lighting conditions and viewpoint. Elaborating on the term in a 2014 interview, Soulages stated, ‘In French, you say “outre-Manche,” “beyond the Channel,” to mean England, or “outre-Rhine,” “beyond the Rhine,” to mean Germany. In other words, “beyond black” is a different country from black’ (P. Soulages, quoted in ‘Pierre Soulages: Interview by Z. Stillpass,’ Interview Magazine, May 2014). Indeed black, for Soulages, is never simply black. Instead this colour – or rather absence of colour – gives Soulages the artistic agency to express and elicit, provoke and incite an emotive response in the beholder. His works become interactive entities, which metamorphose under the gaze of the viewer depending on their position and the type of light. ‘I made these [paintings] because I found that the light reflected by the black surface elicits certain emotions in me,’ Soulages has explained; ‘These aren’t monochromes. The fact that light can come from the colour which is supposedly the absence of light is already quite moving, and it is interesting to see how this happens’ (P. Soulages, quoted in ‘Pierre Soulages: Interview by Z. Stillpass,’ Interview Magazine, May 2014).
In his teenage years, Soulages became fascinated with prehistoric times. He was infatuated by the sense of intrigue offered by this distant and unknown past, and inspired by the 20,000 year-old cave paintings of Lascaux, discovered in 1940, and, later, the even older cave art found in Chauvet en Ardèche in 1994: proof that from the dawn of time, mankind have been driven by a compulsion to create. He strove to convey this raw and primal immediacy in his work, opting for a pure pictorial language, stripped of all connotations to the external world. In this work, the vast expanse of black paint is broken by the scratches and scrapes in the surface, as if in homage to the ancient cave paintings he so admired. Indeed, the very titles of his paintings, all of which abide by the formula, Peinture (Painting) measurement, date, emphasis the fact that these works are not intended as mirror-like reflections on nature, nor illusory windows on to the world. They speak, rather, of art, not artifice; of presence, and not pretense. ‘I’m always shocked to hear people speak of progress in the history of painting with, for instance, the invention of perspective, or the illusion of depth,’ Soulages has asserted; ‘To think that for centuries humans didn’t take depth into account seems a little stupid. For me, art is anything but an illusion, it is presence’ (P. Soulages quoted in P. Ungar, Soulages in America, New York, 2014, p. 35). Certainly, in Peinture 81 cm x 130 cm, 1er Mars 1987, this essential presence is majestically evoked.