Paris (AFP)
A 1960 masterpiece by Pierre Soulages was auctioned Wednesday 9.6 million euros (including costs) at Tajan in Paris, well beyond the initial estimate between 4 and 6 million euros, with the approach of the exhibition Soulages du Louvre, announced the auction house.
"Painting, 200 x 162 cm, March 14, 1960", with intense light and contrasting vertical plans, illustrates the scraping technique initiated by the artist in the late 1950s: on the canvas coated with a white primer, large strips of black paint cover part of the surface. Using soft-tip spatulas, Soulages partially discovered the bottom, revealing the underlying Sienna layer, and offering unexpected luminosity.
Acquired by James Johnson Sweeney, curator at the MoMA in New York from 1935 to 1946 and director of the Guggenheim from 1952 to 1960, at the Galerie de France in Paris in 1960, the painting remained in the Sweeney family.
The meeting in 1948 between Sweeney and Soulages marked the beginning of the wide recognition that will benefit the painter of the "outrenoir" in the United States, even before that it will benefit in France.
This work, which was hung in all the major exhibitions dedicated to Soulages, was put on the market for the first time.
Pierre Soulages will celebrate his birthday on December 24th. The exhibition of twenty of his works covering all stages of his career, will open December 11 at the Salon Carré du Louvre: a mark of recognition to one of the major artists of the second half of the 20th century, who still loves to paint.
© 2019 AFP