Composition abstraite

Painted in 1953, Composition abstraite is an absorbing tapestry of interlinking fields of colour. Dating from the early years of what is considered his mature period, this painting showcases his delicate and sophisticated sensibility to the use of colour and the contrasts between different fields. Poliakoff's original experiments in colour were inspired by a range of influences, and while Composition abstraite is wholly abstract, it is nonetheless easy to see what he gleaned, in terms of the juxtaposition of colour fields, from artists as diverse as Cézanne, Juan Gris, or even the Orthodox icon painters of his native Russia. It is perhaps to Gris and to Russian icons that Poliakoff owed the warm, rich signature ochres that characterise his greatest paintings. At the same time, the sense of poised composition in this picture appears to owe much to the still life paintings of Cézanne and Gris. There is a dynamic drama at play here, in the relations between the various colour fields. This makes the painting all the more engaging, allowing it to become an object of contemplation as well as a celebration of colour. In this sense, it is the influence of Poliakoff's mentor Robert Delaunay, the founder of Orphism, that is most evident in the swirling vortex of these forms.

Poliakoff's abstract paintings, however, are not only about colourism, but are also about the paint itself. In Composition abstraite, he has built up a thick and impastoed surface that is rich in texture. By gradually applying colour upon colour in a succession of layers, he has succeeded not only in heightening the luminosity of these fields, but, by allowing some of the lower layers to glimpse through, lends them a rich appearance of shot silk.