Pure black, he managed to bring out the light. Uncompromising creator, Pierre Soulages, one of the greatest living French painters, continues to explore the mysteries of this pigment and paint ... This artist, always dressed in black, intends to continue his work begun seventy-five years ago years as he celebrates Tuesday, December 24, his 100th birthday.
Pierre Soulages was born on December 24, 1919, in Rodez, in a modest house from the beginning of the 19th century. After the death of his father, a bodybuilder, when he was only 5 years old, he was raised by his mother who ran a shop for fishing and hunting items. He was admitted to the Beaux-Arts in Paris on the eve of the Second World War. But he skipped classes, preferring to train in Montpellier. In 1941, he met there Colette Llaurens whom he married a year later, provided with false papers to escape from the Mandatory Labor Service (STO), which forced young French people to work for Germany. And almost 80 years later, the couple remains inseparable.
In 1947, the young painter moved to Paris where he was noticed by Francis Picabia who encouraged him, as well as Fernand Léger. Abstract painting is popular. But it is red, yellow, blue. Relieve him, chooses to work with the humble walnut husk, used to stain the wood, and house painter brushes.
In the 1950s, his paintings entered the most prestigious museums in the world such as the Guggenheim in New York or the Tate Gallery in London. He meets the main representatives of the New York School, including Mark Rothko who becomes his friend.
One hundred stained glass windows in Conques
In 1959, Soulages had a house-workshop built on the heights of Sète, in the south of France, facing the Mediterranean, where he still lives. He also has two workshops in Paris.
The artist, who prefers to work flat, switches to "the outrenoir" in 1979: while struggling on a work entirely covered with a thick black, Soulages realizes that he has just crossed a course by streaking it. "I was beyond dark, in another mental field," he said. "The pot with which I paint is black. But it's the light, diffused by reflections, which matters".
In 1986, the State ordered more than 100 stained glass windows for the Sainte-Foy de Conques abbey. It was during a school visit to this Romanesque church that he had, when he was a teenager, the revelation of the painting. The stained glass windows were inaugurated in 1994.
The reputation of the painter continues to expand. At the end of 2009, his big retro-vision at the Center Pompidou attracted half a million visitors. Five years later, he had the rare privilege of attending the inauguration in Rodez, his hometown, of a museum entirely dedicated to his work. And the price of his paintings continues to increase on the international art market, as evidenced by the sale in November 2019 of a canvas for the sum of 9.6 million euros in Paris.
Two exhibitions in Paris
Since early December, the National Museum of Modern Art has hung 14 paintings by Pierre Soulages, some of which have never been exhibited in Paris. In total, the museum has twenty-five works by the painter, produced between 1948 and 2002, the second most important collection after that of the Rodez museum.
Rather than a large retrospective bringing together a hundred works, the Louvre focused on around twenty paintings by the master, considered to be the greatest living French artist. A tight choice for this tribute until March 9, 2020, with loans from around the world, a sign of its recognition on both sides of the Atlantic.
On the occasion of these two exhibitions, Pierre Soulages has granted several interviews in which he shows his desire to continue painting. "I think it was very short, there is still a lot to do," he recently told France Inter radio, adding that he would always pursue his artistic research in his studio in Sète.
.With AFP
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