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Lot Essay
Pierre Soulage's singular oeuvre bridged the Atlantic at a time when artistic taste was shifting from Europe toward New York. With a consistently dynamic output that elicited visual comparison to the powerful canvases of the Abstract Expressionists, the French artist’s infatuation with the color black established a connecting thread throughout his decades-long career. Peinture 130 x 89 cm, 8 mars 1956 is a striking example of his early works that tempers the darkness of some of his later pitch-black Outrenoir canvases with glowing color and an infusion of light. Taking on some of the chaotic methods and experimental nature of his American colleagues working during the same time, Soulages was forever pushing the limits of his art form. “I paint by crisis,” he said, “Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. If we know exactly what we are going to do before we do it we are not artists but artisans” (P. Soulages, quoted in S. Heyman, “Pierre Soulages: Master of Black, Still Going Strong”, New York Times, May 20, 2014). By investigating the intersection of the individual artist with the vastness of history, Soulages harnessed light and darkness to create brooding, immersive work.
Though rendered with thick even strokes of paint, Peinture 130 x 89 cm, 8 mars 1956 exudes an illusionary depth at odds with its abstract nature. The eye first travels to three bold diagonals that zip upward from the lower right to the upper left, starting as a single mark and then splitting into two. Around the center of the composition, Soulages places horizontal strokes that offer a visual anchor. Meanwhile, two rectangular shapes balance the energy of the diagonals in the upper right and lower left quadrants. A smoky gray ground acts to intensify the edges of all of these dark black strokes. Their surprisingly ordered movements are at odds with the perceived kinetic energy bristling below the surface. Beneath this, the artist offers a glimpse of light in the form of glowing aquamarine that peeks from between the heavy darkness like a sunbeam piercing an underwater cavern. “The juxtaposition of black and blue has always been voluptuous,” the artist once declared, “one gives in to it with a certain sensuality” (P. Soulages, quoted in P. Encrevé, Soulages, l’oeuvre complet, Peintures, vol. I, 1979-1997, Paris, 1998, p.172). Painted using house painting brushes or scraping tools made from rubber or leather, Soulages’s work veers from the emotive gesture in favor of the resolute mark. Instead of hinging upon fluid movement and amorphous pools of color to enchant the viewer, works like the present example leverage a precise control of light and shadow.
Peinture 130 x 89 cm, 8 mars 1956 dates from a period when Soulages was fully invested in his so-called raclage technique. Stemming from his earlier linear compositions, the sharp-edged bars of paint observable in the current example hint at the artist’s fascination with perceived tension over dynamic motion. “Rather than movement, I prefer to talk of tension,” he notes. “And rhythm, yes. We can also say form: a shaping of matter and light” (P. Soulages, quoted in “Les instruments de la peinture,” Pierre Soulages: Outrenoir: Entretiens avec Françoise Jaunin, Lausanne, 2014, p. 92). Setting up his early compositions in a structural mode, the layers of paint are added and scraped to reveal lighter tones below. Nearly obscuring the bright colors once again with thick blackness, Soulages only hints at their existence beneath. This hidden beacon establishes a yearning in the viewer, making them want to peel back the layers and revel in the glow.
Though sometimes compared to American artists like Mark Rothko and Franz Kline for their use of large areas of color and the emotive presence of pure black, Soulages’s paintings are distinct from his stateside counterparts. The French painter first visited New York in 1957, just a year after Peinture 130 x 89 cm, 8 mars 1956 was completed, where he met with some of the artists associated with the thriving New York School. Of particular interest, Robert Motherwell told him that Abstract Expressionism could only truly be understood by Americans, to which Soulages responded that “An art should be understood, loved and shared by anyone, anywhere in the world. That we are marked by the culture in which we have grown up and lived, that’s part of us, very obviously. But I believe that in art, there are fundamentally only personal adventures that go beyond the individual, and even beyond his culture” (Ibid., p. 31). This emphasis on art that pulls from the world at large instead of just the internal chaos of the individual artist sets Soulages apart from his peers in New York and infuses works like the present example with a weight of history.
Though rendered with thick even strokes of paint, Peinture 130 x 89 cm, 8 mars 1956 exudes an illusionary depth at odds with its abstract nature. The eye first travels to three bold diagonals that zip upward from the lower right to the upper left, starting as a single mark and then splitting into two. Around the center of the composition, Soulages places horizontal strokes that offer a visual anchor. Meanwhile, two rectangular shapes balance the energy of the diagonals in the upper right and lower left quadrants. A smoky gray ground acts to intensify the edges of all of these dark black strokes. Their surprisingly ordered movements are at odds with the perceived kinetic energy bristling below the surface. Beneath this, the artist offers a glimpse of light in the form of glowing aquamarine that peeks from between the heavy darkness like a sunbeam piercing an underwater cavern. “The juxtaposition of black and blue has always been voluptuous,” the artist once declared, “one gives in to it with a certain sensuality” (P. Soulages, quoted in P. Encrevé, Soulages, l’oeuvre complet, Peintures, vol. I, 1979-1997, Paris, 1998, p.172). Painted using house painting brushes or scraping tools made from rubber or leather, Soulages’s work veers from the emotive gesture in favor of the resolute mark. Instead of hinging upon fluid movement and amorphous pools of color to enchant the viewer, works like the present example leverage a precise control of light and shadow.
Peinture 130 x 89 cm, 8 mars 1956 dates from a period when Soulages was fully invested in his so-called raclage technique. Stemming from his earlier linear compositions, the sharp-edged bars of paint observable in the current example hint at the artist’s fascination with perceived tension over dynamic motion. “Rather than movement, I prefer to talk of tension,” he notes. “And rhythm, yes. We can also say form: a shaping of matter and light” (P. Soulages, quoted in “Les instruments de la peinture,” Pierre Soulages: Outrenoir: Entretiens avec Françoise Jaunin, Lausanne, 2014, p. 92). Setting up his early compositions in a structural mode, the layers of paint are added and scraped to reveal lighter tones below. Nearly obscuring the bright colors once again with thick blackness, Soulages only hints at their existence beneath. This hidden beacon establishes a yearning in the viewer, making them want to peel back the layers and revel in the glow.
Though sometimes compared to American artists like Mark Rothko and Franz Kline for their use of large areas of color and the emotive presence of pure black, Soulages’s paintings are distinct from his stateside counterparts. The French painter first visited New York in 1957, just a year after Peinture 130 x 89 cm, 8 mars 1956 was completed, where he met with some of the artists associated with the thriving New York School. Of particular interest, Robert Motherwell told him that Abstract Expressionism could only truly be understood by Americans, to which Soulages responded that “An art should be understood, loved and shared by anyone, anywhere in the world. That we are marked by the culture in which we have grown up and lived, that’s part of us, very obviously. But I believe that in art, there are fundamentally only personal adventures that go beyond the individual, and even beyond his culture” (Ibid., p. 31). This emphasis on art that pulls from the world at large instead of just the internal chaos of the individual artist sets Soulages apart from his peers in New York and infuses works like the present example with a weight of history.