.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
‘Soulages never plans ahead when he begins a painting... he creates a situation with a canvas and some colours, always a very small number of colours. Or it could be said that he allows himself opportunities; he opens a door to chance. Then he manages to make the most of the situation, to play his hand. This works or does not work. The painting is created or is not created’ (R. Vailland, ‘Comment travaille Pierre Soulages’, in L’Oeil, no. 77, May 1961, p. 46).
Characterised by bold, weighty black, bar-like brushstrokes, Peinture 92 x 73 cm, 9 mars 1961 is an elegant paean to the relationship between darkness and light. The bold quality of the marks that articulate the surface are thrust into relief by their contrast with the warmth of the pale surface at the lower right. Peinture 92 x 73 cm, 9 mars 1961 dates from an important moment in Soulages’ career, at a time when the artist was garnering more and more attention in the United States of America, as well as in France and Europe. Indeed, the present work was included in Soulages’ solo exhibition at the acclaimed Kootz Gallery, New York, 1961, and was exhibited twice at the Philadelphia Museum of Art in 1963 and 1977.
The present work was painted mere weeks before the visit that the now-celebrated writer Roger Vailland made to Pierre Soulages’ studio. On that occasion, Vailland became the sole witness to Soulages’ processes and techniques as he created his work. He described the careful selection of a canvas size that suited Soulages’ mood. He wrote of the tools and implements used by the artist, including the glass upon which paint would be smeared in order to assess its luminosity, and the various unusual implements that he would use in order to manipulate the paint on the canvas. ‘Soulages never plans ahead when he begins a painting,’ Vailland explained, ‘he creates a situation with a canvas and some colours, always a very small number of colours. Or it could be said that he allows himself opportunities; he opens a door to chance. Then he manages to make the most of the situation, to play his hand. This works or does not work. The painting is created or is not created’ (R. Vailland, ‘Comment travaille Pierre Soulages’, in L’Oeil, no. 77, May 1961, p. 46).
Indeed it was at this time that Soulages was being granted increasing recognition as a pioneer of abstract painting. Stylistically, this critical moment saw the artist consolidate an artistic language that he had been developing gradually, since the late 1940s. In the earlier works which Soulages devised after his development of an abstract idiom, when all traces of signs had dissolved, the artist often created lattice-like patterns of dark bars of colour. Gradually, these increased in the sense of visual mass that they conveyed, resulting in pictures such as Peinture 92 x 73 cm, 9 mars 1961 where the darkness covers much of the surface. It is no longer a simple matter of foreground and background, or motif and backdrop, as it had been earlier. Instead, our eyes follow the horizontal and diagonal movements that have coalesced to create this pulsing, rhythmic composition. Soulages has dismantled and discarded figuration, instead exploring the visual potency of paint to convey a sense of space. This is achieved by his incredible ability to paint a picture that is predominantly black and yet evokes a rich play of light.
Soulages recalls the practice of his American contemporary, Franz Kline, who claimed that despite having a full range of colours on his palette while he worked, it was still black and white that suggested themselves to him. The similarity with Kline, the Abstract Expressionist, is striking yet is ultimately only superficial, as the concerns and processes of both painters remain strides apart, as indeed does the finished effect of their works. In the 1940s, Soulages’ works were shown sometimes alongside both European and American abstract artists, including Jackson Pollock and Franz Kline, with whose works he is often compared. However, the two artists came from very different viewpoints: Kline often used sketches in order to create preordained compositions, whereas Soulages responded moment by moment, stroke by stroke, to the organic situation that resulted in his artwork. ‘My painting does not tell the story of my dance,’ Soulages explained to Vailland, who had commented on his fleet movements before the canvas. ‘I cover and discover the surfaces. I do not draw lines where the people looking at my picture will once more find the movements of my hand... I am telling nothing’ (P. Soulages, quoted in S. Kuthy (ed.), Pierre Soulages: Celébration de la lumière, exh. cat., Kunstmuseum Berne, 1999, 1961, p. 72).
Characterised by bold, weighty black, bar-like brushstrokes, Peinture 92 x 73 cm, 9 mars 1961 is an elegant paean to the relationship between darkness and light. The bold quality of the marks that articulate the surface are thrust into relief by their contrast with the warmth of the pale surface at the lower right. Peinture 92 x 73 cm, 9 mars 1961 dates from an important moment in Soulages’ career, at a time when the artist was garnering more and more attention in the United States of America, as well as in France and Europe. Indeed, the present work was included in Soulages’ solo exhibition at the acclaimed Kootz Gallery, New York, 1961, and was exhibited twice at the Philadelphia Museum of Art in 1963 and 1977.
The present work was painted mere weeks before the visit that the now-celebrated writer Roger Vailland made to Pierre Soulages’ studio. On that occasion, Vailland became the sole witness to Soulages’ processes and techniques as he created his work. He described the careful selection of a canvas size that suited Soulages’ mood. He wrote of the tools and implements used by the artist, including the glass upon which paint would be smeared in order to assess its luminosity, and the various unusual implements that he would use in order to manipulate the paint on the canvas. ‘Soulages never plans ahead when he begins a painting,’ Vailland explained, ‘he creates a situation with a canvas and some colours, always a very small number of colours. Or it could be said that he allows himself opportunities; he opens a door to chance. Then he manages to make the most of the situation, to play his hand. This works or does not work. The painting is created or is not created’ (R. Vailland, ‘Comment travaille Pierre Soulages’, in L’Oeil, no. 77, May 1961, p. 46).
Indeed it was at this time that Soulages was being granted increasing recognition as a pioneer of abstract painting. Stylistically, this critical moment saw the artist consolidate an artistic language that he had been developing gradually, since the late 1940s. In the earlier works which Soulages devised after his development of an abstract idiom, when all traces of signs had dissolved, the artist often created lattice-like patterns of dark bars of colour. Gradually, these increased in the sense of visual mass that they conveyed, resulting in pictures such as Peinture 92 x 73 cm, 9 mars 1961 where the darkness covers much of the surface. It is no longer a simple matter of foreground and background, or motif and backdrop, as it had been earlier. Instead, our eyes follow the horizontal and diagonal movements that have coalesced to create this pulsing, rhythmic composition. Soulages has dismantled and discarded figuration, instead exploring the visual potency of paint to convey a sense of space. This is achieved by his incredible ability to paint a picture that is predominantly black and yet evokes a rich play of light.
Soulages recalls the practice of his American contemporary, Franz Kline, who claimed that despite having a full range of colours on his palette while he worked, it was still black and white that suggested themselves to him. The similarity with Kline, the Abstract Expressionist, is striking yet is ultimately only superficial, as the concerns and processes of both painters remain strides apart, as indeed does the finished effect of their works. In the 1940s, Soulages’ works were shown sometimes alongside both European and American abstract artists, including Jackson Pollock and Franz Kline, with whose works he is often compared. However, the two artists came from very different viewpoints: Kline often used sketches in order to create preordained compositions, whereas Soulages responded moment by moment, stroke by stroke, to the organic situation that resulted in his artwork. ‘My painting does not tell the story of my dance,’ Soulages explained to Vailland, who had commented on his fleet movements before the canvas. ‘I cover and discover the surfaces. I do not draw lines where the people looking at my picture will once more find the movements of my hand... I am telling nothing’ (P. Soulages, quoted in S. Kuthy (ed.), Pierre Soulages: Celébration de la lumière, exh. cat., Kunstmuseum Berne, 1999, 1961, p. 72).