DÉTAILS DE L'IMAGE

Alexis Lartigue Fine Art

Pierre Soulages (Rhodez 1919-2022 Nîmes)
Sans titre, 1967
Oil on canvas
97 x 130 cm
Signed on the lower left
This work is included in the catalogue raisonné vol. II, n° 601
Provenance: Knoedler and Co, New York; private collection, USA; private collection, Paris
Literature: Soulages, L'oeuvre complet, Peintures vol. 2, 1959-1978, n° 60, p. 187 Buffalo, Knox Art Gallery, 1968, n° 16
Exhibitions: Soulages paintings since 1963, Knoedler and Co, New York; Museum of Art, Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh; Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo

'In the hundred or so paintings created between the fall of 1963 and the end of 1967, the evolution of Soulages' painting is evident in several essential aspects: the much greater fluidity of the paint; the treatment of blacks in large flat areas; the brief reappearance of blacks on unpainted white backgrounds. Finally, note the return of very large formats and virtual polyptychs. From mid-63 onwards, there is almost a disappearance of scraping. This technique was technically linked to the thick quality of the layer deposited by the painter, to its paste-like character. On the contrary, the canvases now show large swathes of dark, black, or brown-black paint, where the much more liquid coloured material is no longer deposited and removed with the blade, but spread with a brush, in a movement that leaves practically no trace. The fluidity is such that some paintings have streaks of black paint running down'.