ID 832050
Lot 3 | Pierre Soulages (né en 1919)
Estimate value
€ 600 000 – 800 000
Peinture 85 x 222 cm, 18 avril 1991
signé, daté et inscrit 'SOULAGES Peinture 28 x 222 18 Avril 1991' (au revers)
huile sur toile
85 x 222 cm.
Peint en 1991
signed, dated and inscribed 'SOULAGES Peinture 28 x 222 18 Avril 1991' (on the reverse)
oil on canvas
33 1/2 x 87 3/8 in.
Painted in 1991
Provenance
Fondation Veranneman, Kruishoutem (acquis en 1991).
Collection particulière, Bruxelles (acquis auprès de celle-ci en 1993).
Literature
P. Encrevé, Soulages, L'œuvre complet Peintures III. 1979-1997, Paris, 1998, p. 173, no. 1095 (illustré en couleurs, p. 259).
Special notice
Artist's Resale Right ("droit de Suite").
If the Artist's Resale Right Regulations 2006 apply to this lot, the buyer also agrees to pay us an amount equal to the resale royalty provided for in those Regulations, and we undertake to the buyer to pay such amount to the artist's collection agent.
This item will be transferred to an offsite warehouse after the sale. Please refer to department for information about storage charges and collection
details.
Post lot text
C’est en 1979 que Pierre Soulages réalise ses premiers outrenoirs. Il est alors un artiste déjà acclamé dans le monde entier. De nombreuses expositions entre la fin des années 1960 et celles des années 1970 ont solidement bâti sa reconnaissance tant par le marché que par les institutions (Musée national d’art moderne de Paris en 1967; Knoedler & Cie de New York, Museum of Art Carnegie Institute, Albright Knox Art Gallery; série d’expositions en Amérique latine, etc.). Ce que recherche l’artiste dans ce contexte prolifique, c’est d’amener sa peinture au-delà du noir. Il révèle l’éclat de la lumière qui réfléchit entre la toile peinte et le regard de celui qui la contemple. Un noir radical donc, initiateur d’un champ mental nouveau, invitant le spectateur dans un territoire jusqu’alors inconnu.
Rares sont les toiles présentant du rouge tel que Peinture 85 x 222 cm, 18 avril 1991. Des stries obliques traversent la partie supérieure du tableau jusqu'à ce qu'elles s’interrompent par une vaste étendue de rouge chaud qui se déploie par dessous. L’œuvre donne un aperçu de l'éventail complet des techniques utilisées dans les Outrenoirs, une série que l'artiste poursuit encore aujourd'hui. Il joue avec des textures lisses et sillonnées, alternant entre des zones de mat et de brillant et faisant parfois appel à une autre couleur qui émerge des profondeurs de la pièce. La série des Outrenoirs invite le spectateur à franchir une frontière, à découvrir un pays étranger, et à reconsidérer la peinture au-delà de la toile. Le noir n'est plus une couleur, il agit comme une matière première et une lumière.
L’huile appliquée en épaisseur rend possibles tous les traits audacieux : le long des sillons et des crêtes, des blocs fibreux et lisses et des zones qui réfléchissent ou absorbent la lumière, le noir peut prendre des nuances anthracite, gris presque bleuté, et parfois même presque blanc. Dans Peinture 85 x 222 cm, 18 avril 1991, le noir participe à la création d’un paysage nouveau, une forêt mystérieuse de troncs noirs et sinueux, hypnotisant, intrigants et fascinants, desquels émane, à leurs racines, une brume rouge nerveuse et enveloppante, irisant ces arbres de reflets pourpres, pour rejoindre leur cimes. Cette atmosphère tourmentée n’attend plus d’être seulement contemplée, mais invite désormais le spectateur à pénétrer au-dedans du tableau, à venir dépasser l’orée de ce bois onirique, s’y frayer un chemin entre les arbres, à suivre une ou plusieurs voies tracées par la brume carminée. Peinture 85 x 222 cm, 18 avril 1991 est un exemple spectaculaire de ce que définira Soulages lui-même comme « un espace de questionnement et de méditation où les sens qu’on lui prête peuvent venir se faire et se défaire ».
Pierre Soulages produced his first Outrenoir paintings in 1979. At this point, he was an artist already acclaimed throughout the world. Numerous exhibitions between the end of the 1960s and the 1970s solidly established his recognition both by the art market and by institutions (Musée national d'art moderne in Paris in 1967; Knoedler & Cie in New York, Museum of Art Carnegie Institute, Albright Knox Art Gallery; series of exhibitions in Latin America, etc.). What the artist seeks in this prolific context is to take his painting beyond black. He reveals the brightness of the light that reflects between the painted canvas and the gaze of the beholder. A radical black, therefore, initiating a new mental field, inviting the viewer into a hitherto unknown territory.
Rare are the paintings presenting red such as Painting 85 x 222 cm, 18th April, 1991. Oblique striations run across the top of the painting until they are interrupted by a vast expanse of warm reds that unfold from below. The work provides a glimpse into the full range of techniques used in Outrenoir, a series that the artist continues to work on today. He plays with smooth and furrowed textures, alternating between areas of matt and gloss— occasionally calling up another colour that emerges from the depths of the piece. The Outrenoirs series invites the viewer to cross a border, to discover a foreign land, and to reconsider painting beyond the canvas. Black is no longer a colour, it acts as a raw material and a light.
The oil applied in thickness makes all bold strokes possible: along furrows and ridges, fibrous and smooth blocks and areas that reflect or absorb light, black can take on shades of anthracite, almost bluish grey, and sometimes even almost white. In Painting 85 x 222 cm, 18th April 1991, black participates in the creation of a new landscape, a mysterious forest of black and sinuous trunks, hypnotizing, intriguing and fascinating, from which emanates, at their roots, a nervous and enveloping red mist, conveying an iridescent touch to these trees with crimson reflections, to reach their tops. This tormented atmosphere does not wait to be just contemplated, but invites the spectator to penetrate inside the painting, to enter beyond the edge of this dreamy wood, to make a way between the trees, to follow one or several ways traced by the carmine mist. Painting 85 x 222 cm,18th April, 1991 is a spectacular example of what Soulages himself defines as “a space of questioning and meditation where the meanings that one lends to it can come to be made and unmade.”
Artist: | Pierre Soulages (1919 - 2022) |
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Applied technique: | Oil on canvas |
Art style: | Contemporary art |
Place of origin: | Western Europe, France, Europe |
Auction house category: | Paintings |
Artist: | Pierre Soulages (1919 - 2022) |
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Applied technique: | Oil on canvas |
Art style: | Contemporary art |
Place of origin: | Western Europe, France, Europe |
Auction house category: | Paintings |
Address of auction |
CHRISTIE'S 8 King Street, St. James's SW1Y 6QT London United Kingdom | |
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Phone | +44 (0)20 7839 9060 | |
Buyer Premium | see on Website | |
Conditions of purchase | Conditions of purchase |
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