Pierre Soulages - artist

Pierre Soulages, French painter

Pierre Soulages is a French painter born in 1919 in Rodez.

"It was not until 1946 that he was able to devote all his time to painting. He then settled in the Parisian suburbs. His paintings where black dominates are abstract and dark. They are immediately noticed as they differ from the semi-figurative and very colorful painting of the post-war period." - Extract from the website https://www.pierre-soulages.com/

Pierre Soulages' work is on display in Paris, throughout Europe and New York. In the 1950s, he became a renowned artist in the United States. Today his works are present in more than 110 museums all over the world. Still attached to the place of his childhood, Pierre Soulages and his wife Colette donated in 2005 to the agglomeration community of Grand Rodez more than 250 works thus retracing the artist's career. This donation is then the most important granted in France by a living artist. https://musee-soulages-rodez.fr/

Pierre Soulages, the Outrenoir

In a France Culture program, the journalist describes Pierre Soulages as the painter of rupture. "All his work aims to invent a painting freed from figuration and interpretation."

Pierre Soulages explains his use of black - Black is a revelation. One day, after falling asleep, the artist returns to his painting and realizes that black was no longer black but a painting "where the reflection of light on the surface states was the thing that mattered most".

Pierre Soulages calls the color black "Noir Lumière" and then calls it "Outrenoir".

"The color black is only a medium where the gaze rests, the better to reach the mental field that the artist aims to open up to the maximum."

The painter does not speak of canvas or color but of surface states. More than black, it is light that interests Pierre Soulages, which he produces by working directly on the texture and thickness of the paint used: streaks, lines, lines and nothing else because "The means are more limited the stronger the expression. " Visit his website: https://www.pierre-soulages.com/