Paris (AFP)
He is the first artist to be able to celebrate his 100th birthday with his works exhibited at the Louvre, but also at the Center Pompidou: the painter Pierre Soulages celebrates Tuesday a century of life, which the world of culture has not failed to greet.
"Today, Pierre Soulages is celebrating its 100th anniversary! We are happy to be able to wish him such a happy birthday," wrote the Center Pompidou on Twitter, which had devoted an exhibition to the master of the outrenoir in 1967.
Since the beginning of December, the National Museum of Modern Art has hung 14 paintings by Pierre Soulages, some of which have never been shown in Paris. In total, the museum has 25 works by the painter, produced between 1948 and 2002, the second most important collection after that of the museum bearing his name in Rodez, his hometown.
"Happy birthday to Pierre Soulages who is celebrating his 100th birthday today!", Launched on Twitter the Minister of Culture Franck Riester, putting online a portrait of the painter during his recent visit to Paris for the exhibitions devoted to him.
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 (Tate in London, Guggenheim in New York, Soulages museum in Rodez ...), a sign of recognition on both sides of the 'Atlantic.
The exhibition focuses on the outrenoir, this universe imagined by Soulages in 1979 when he took the turn of complete black, focusing on contrast, between smooth and streaks, matt and shiny and black and light.
A territory that the painter continues to explore tirelessly, as shown by these two vertical paintings made this fall and exhibited at the Louvre.
"He lives and creates in Sète. Happy birthday to the master of the tool Pierre Soulages", writes on Twitter the adopted city of the painter.
"Happy hundred years to Pierre Soulages and a good Christmas to share with Colette (his wife, editor's note). Wonderful friends whom we would like to be eternal", underlines for his part Christophe Girard, the assistant to culture at the town hall of Paris, on the same social network.
© 2019 AFP