Pure black, he managed to bring out the light.

An uncompromising creator, Pierre Soulages, one of the greatest French painters, died at the age of 102 on Wednesday October 26.

"It's sad news, I just hung up with his widow, Colette Soulages," Alfred Pacquement, a longtime friend of the painter and president of the museum that bears his name in Rodez (Aveyron), told AFP.

This artist, always dressed in black, has continued to explore for more than 75 years the mysteries of this pigment and to paint.

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 coachbuilder, when he was only 5 years old, he was raised by his mother who ran a fishing and hunting tackle store.

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.

There he met Colette Laurens in 1941, whom he married a year later, provided with false papers to escape the Compulsory Labor Service (STO), which forced young French people to work for Germany.

The couple will remain inseparable for 80 years, celebrating in October 2022 their oak nuptials.

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 was then popular.

But it is red, yellow, blue.

Relieves him, chooses to work with the humble walnut husk, used to tint the wood, and house painter's 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 continued to live.

He also had two workshops in Paris.

The artist, who prefers to work flat, switches to "outrenoir" in 1979: while he is struggling on a work entirely covered in thick black, Soulages realizes that he has just taken a step by streaking it.

"I was beyond the dark, in another mental field," he said.

"The pot with which I paint is black. But it is the light, diffused by reflections, which matters".

In 1986, the State placed an order for more than 100 stained glass windows for the abbey church of Sainte-Foy in Conques.

It was during a school visit to this Romanesque church that he had had, then a teenager, the revelation of painting.

The stained glass windows were inaugurated in 1994.

>> To read also: the Soulages museum opens its doors in Rodez

The reputation of the painter continues to expand.

At the end of 2009, his major retrospective 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 in 2019-2020

In December 2019, the National Museum of Modern Art hung 14 paintings by Pierre Soulages, some of which have never before been exhibited in Paris.

In total, the museum had twenty-five works by the painter, produced between 1948 and 2002, the second largest collection after that of the Rodez museum.

Rather than a major retrospective bringing together a hundred works, the Louvre focused on around twenty paintings by the master, considered the greatest living French artist.

A narrow choice for this tribute, with loans from all over the world, a sign of its recognition on both sides of the Atlantic.

On the occasion of these two exhibitions, Pierre Soulages gave several interviews in which he expressed his desire to continue painting.

"I think it was very short, there is still a lot to do," he told France Inter.

Pierre Soulages: "I find that this life has been short! There is still a lot to do."

#le79Inter pic.twitter.com/XCub3vQBz2

– France Inter (@franceinter) December 20, 2019

With AFP

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