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拍品专文
Not exhibited publicly since its debut at Samuel Kootz’s gallery in 1959, Pierre Soulages’s monumental masterpiece, Peinture 161 x 200 cm 14 novembre 1958, encapsulates the distinctive and highly original character that defines the French artist’s painterly abstractions. One of the leading figures of postwar European abstraction, Soulages developed a unique approach to painting that emphasized the interplay of light and material, form and void, gesture and control. His works are known for their striking, elemental force—structures of darkness punctuated by flashes of color and luminescent transparency.
Dating from a crucial period in Soulages’s career, Peinture 161 x 200 cm 14 novembre 1958 is a masterful example of his raclage technique, a method that involved scraping away layers of pigment to reveal unexpected color relationships and depths. By the late 1950s, Soulages had moved beyond the bold, interlocking black forms of his earlier work and was pioneering a complex process of layering and excavation. Rather than applying color in a straightforward manner, he built up multiple strata of paint, only to then scrape, and manipulate them to uncover luminous variations of tone. This meticulous, almost archaeological process gave his works a depth and intensity that set them apart from those of his contemporaries.
Pierre Encrevé, the author of Soulages: L’œuvre complet, Peintures I. 1946-1959, describes this phase as a defining moment in the artist’s development: “The years 1957-1963 particularly illustrate one of Soulages’s characteristic techniques in the double treatment of the surface: that of scraping, or, if one prefers, transparency through uncovering. On the prepared canvas (primed in white), he applies a layer of paint covering part or all of the surface, upon which he superimposes, while the paint is fresh, one or more layers of different color. He then uncovers a part of the background using the same soft-bladed spatulas that he more often loads with black paint: according to the power and the shape of the movement, this scraping will remove paint all the way down to the canvas, or only as far as one of the intermediate layers. A subtle mixture of the different layers’ colors are created, each time surprising for the painter himself; infinite variations of color are discovered on the canvas; new luminosities, and unexpected color intensities through transparencies of black … red, blue, and yellow ochre seem Soulages’s colors of choice for neighboring with large surfaces of black, at the same time as he uses them to create these mixtures, these disappearances-reappearances under the blade-scraped veils of black where the ‘transfigured’ color acquires a presence of a very particular emotional intensity” (P. Encrevé, “Le noir et l’outrenoir,” in Soulages: Noir Lumière, exh. cat. Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, 1996, p. 30).
Painted in the airy Rue Galande studio that Soulages moved into in 1957 and occupied for nearly two decades, Peinture 161 x 200 cm 14 novembre 1958 reflects an artist at the height of his powers. Though he had yet to achieve widespread acclaim in France, Soulages was already a celebrated figure in the American art world, where his work resonated with the avant-garde currents of the time.
Soulages’s first visited New York in November 1957—exactly a year before the present work was painted—for his solo exhibition at Kootz Gallery, marking a turning point in his international reputation. The French painter received warm receptions at the Museum of Modern Art and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, and he quickly developed friendships with leading artists such as Mark Rothko, Willem de Kooning, Robert Motherwell, and Franz Kline. This cross-cultural exchange placed him at the center of one of the most dynamic artistic dialogues of the twentieth century.
Despite these associations, Soulages maintained a strong sense of independence from the Abstract Expressionist movement. While many critics drew comparisons between his work and that of the New York School, he resisted such categorization, emphasizing his distinct approach to abstraction. When Robert Motherwell asserted that Abstract Expressionism could only be truly understood by Americans, Soulages famously countered: “An art should be understood, loved, and shared by anyone, anywhere in the world. That we are marked by the culture in which we have grown up and lived, that’s part of us, very obviously. But I believe that in art, there are fundamentally only personal adventures that go beyond the individual, and even beyond his culture” (P. Soulages, quoted in “Peindre la peinture,” in Pierre Soulages: Outrenoir: Entretiens avec Françoise Jaunin, Lausanne, 2014, p. 31). This belief underscores the universal language that Soulages sought to create through his work, one that transcended national or stylistic boundaries.
James Johnson Sweeney, the director of the Guggenheim Museum and one of Soulages’s earliest champions, memorably wrote: “A painting by Pierre Soulages is like a chord on a vast piano struck with both hands simultaneously—struck and held” (J. Johnson Sweeney, Pierre Soulages, New York, 1972, p. 5). This powerful metaphor captures the sustained, resonant impact of Soulages’s work. Unlike the gestural sequences of Abstract Expressionism, Peinture 161 x 200 cm 14 novembre 1958 does not narrate an emotional journey or invite a temporal reading of the artist’s psyche. Instead, it presents itself as a singular, unified presence—an event in and of itself. It is neither lyrical nor sentimental; rather, it is a composition of pure structural energy.
Central to Soulages’s philosophy was his rejection of traditional notions of artistic intention. He did not begin a painting with a preconceived image in mind but instead responded to the evolving interplay of material, light, and form. “Rather than movement, I prefer to talk of tension,” he explained. “And rhythm, yes. We can also say form: a shaping of matter and light” P. Soulages, quoted in “Les instruments de la peinture,” in Pierre Soulages: Outrenoir, op. cit., p. 92). His use of house painters’ brushes and wide, flat scraping tools—many of which he designed himself—further distanced his work from the gestural expressiveness of his American counterparts. Instead of emphasizing the personal trace of the artist’s hand, Soulages sought to create compositions that stood independently of his own subjectivity.
This approach extended to his views on interpretation. He insisted that his paintings could evoke different responses depending on the viewer’s own experience and perception. “My pictures are poetic objects capable of receiving what each person is ready to invest there according to the ensemble of forms and colors that is proposed to him,” he once explained. “As for me, I don’t know what I am looking for when painting. Picasso said: ‘I do not search, I find.’ My attitude is a bit different: it’s what I do that teaches me what I’m looking for” (P. Soulages, quoted in ‘Peindre la peinture’, op. cit, p. 14).
This philosophy positions Soulages’s work within a broader lineage of modernist experimentation, where the act of painting becomes a dialogue between artist and medium. His technique of layering and excavation suggests an almost sculptural approach to the canvas, one that engages with depth, transparency, and the physicality of paint in a uniquely tactile way. Peinture 161 x 200 cm 14 novembre 1958 is an eloquent testament to this process, revealing in its scraped surfaces and layered color a history of decisions, revisions, and discoveries.
More than six decades after its creation, Peinture 161 x 200 cm 14 novembre 1958 remains a powerful statement of Soulages’s artistic vision. In its bold contrasts, rhythmic interplay of forms, and luminous depths, the painting embodies the essential qualities that have made Soulages one of the most enduring and influential figures in modern abstraction. It stands as both a historical artifact of a pivotal moment in twentieth-century art and a timeless meditation on the fundamental forces of light, matter, and perception.
Dating from a crucial period in Soulages’s career, Peinture 161 x 200 cm 14 novembre 1958 is a masterful example of his raclage technique, a method that involved scraping away layers of pigment to reveal unexpected color relationships and depths. By the late 1950s, Soulages had moved beyond the bold, interlocking black forms of his earlier work and was pioneering a complex process of layering and excavation. Rather than applying color in a straightforward manner, he built up multiple strata of paint, only to then scrape, and manipulate them to uncover luminous variations of tone. This meticulous, almost archaeological process gave his works a depth and intensity that set them apart from those of his contemporaries.
Pierre Encrevé, the author of Soulages: L’œuvre complet, Peintures I. 1946-1959, describes this phase as a defining moment in the artist’s development: “The years 1957-1963 particularly illustrate one of Soulages’s characteristic techniques in the double treatment of the surface: that of scraping, or, if one prefers, transparency through uncovering. On the prepared canvas (primed in white), he applies a layer of paint covering part or all of the surface, upon which he superimposes, while the paint is fresh, one or more layers of different color. He then uncovers a part of the background using the same soft-bladed spatulas that he more often loads with black paint: according to the power and the shape of the movement, this scraping will remove paint all the way down to the canvas, or only as far as one of the intermediate layers. A subtle mixture of the different layers’ colors are created, each time surprising for the painter himself; infinite variations of color are discovered on the canvas; new luminosities, and unexpected color intensities through transparencies of black … red, blue, and yellow ochre seem Soulages’s colors of choice for neighboring with large surfaces of black, at the same time as he uses them to create these mixtures, these disappearances-reappearances under the blade-scraped veils of black where the ‘transfigured’ color acquires a presence of a very particular emotional intensity” (P. Encrevé, “Le noir et l’outrenoir,” in Soulages: Noir Lumière, exh. cat. Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, 1996, p. 30).
Painted in the airy Rue Galande studio that Soulages moved into in 1957 and occupied for nearly two decades, Peinture 161 x 200 cm 14 novembre 1958 reflects an artist at the height of his powers. Though he had yet to achieve widespread acclaim in France, Soulages was already a celebrated figure in the American art world, where his work resonated with the avant-garde currents of the time.
Soulages’s first visited New York in November 1957—exactly a year before the present work was painted—for his solo exhibition at Kootz Gallery, marking a turning point in his international reputation. The French painter received warm receptions at the Museum of Modern Art and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, and he quickly developed friendships with leading artists such as Mark Rothko, Willem de Kooning, Robert Motherwell, and Franz Kline. This cross-cultural exchange placed him at the center of one of the most dynamic artistic dialogues of the twentieth century.
Despite these associations, Soulages maintained a strong sense of independence from the Abstract Expressionist movement. While many critics drew comparisons between his work and that of the New York School, he resisted such categorization, emphasizing his distinct approach to abstraction. When Robert Motherwell asserted that Abstract Expressionism could only be truly understood by Americans, Soulages famously countered: “An art should be understood, loved, and shared by anyone, anywhere in the world. That we are marked by the culture in which we have grown up and lived, that’s part of us, very obviously. But I believe that in art, there are fundamentally only personal adventures that go beyond the individual, and even beyond his culture” (P. Soulages, quoted in “Peindre la peinture,” in Pierre Soulages: Outrenoir: Entretiens avec Françoise Jaunin, Lausanne, 2014, p. 31). This belief underscores the universal language that Soulages sought to create through his work, one that transcended national or stylistic boundaries.
James Johnson Sweeney, the director of the Guggenheim Museum and one of Soulages’s earliest champions, memorably wrote: “A painting by Pierre Soulages is like a chord on a vast piano struck with both hands simultaneously—struck and held” (J. Johnson Sweeney, Pierre Soulages, New York, 1972, p. 5). This powerful metaphor captures the sustained, resonant impact of Soulages’s work. Unlike the gestural sequences of Abstract Expressionism, Peinture 161 x 200 cm 14 novembre 1958 does not narrate an emotional journey or invite a temporal reading of the artist’s psyche. Instead, it presents itself as a singular, unified presence—an event in and of itself. It is neither lyrical nor sentimental; rather, it is a composition of pure structural energy.
Central to Soulages’s philosophy was his rejection of traditional notions of artistic intention. He did not begin a painting with a preconceived image in mind but instead responded to the evolving interplay of material, light, and form. “Rather than movement, I prefer to talk of tension,” he explained. “And rhythm, yes. We can also say form: a shaping of matter and light” P. Soulages, quoted in “Les instruments de la peinture,” in Pierre Soulages: Outrenoir, op. cit., p. 92). His use of house painters’ brushes and wide, flat scraping tools—many of which he designed himself—further distanced his work from the gestural expressiveness of his American counterparts. Instead of emphasizing the personal trace of the artist’s hand, Soulages sought to create compositions that stood independently of his own subjectivity.
This approach extended to his views on interpretation. He insisted that his paintings could evoke different responses depending on the viewer’s own experience and perception. “My pictures are poetic objects capable of receiving what each person is ready to invest there according to the ensemble of forms and colors that is proposed to him,” he once explained. “As for me, I don’t know what I am looking for when painting. Picasso said: ‘I do not search, I find.’ My attitude is a bit different: it’s what I do that teaches me what I’m looking for” (P. Soulages, quoted in ‘Peindre la peinture’, op. cit, p. 14).
This philosophy positions Soulages’s work within a broader lineage of modernist experimentation, where the act of painting becomes a dialogue between artist and medium. His technique of layering and excavation suggests an almost sculptural approach to the canvas, one that engages with depth, transparency, and the physicality of paint in a uniquely tactile way. Peinture 161 x 200 cm 14 novembre 1958 is an eloquent testament to this process, revealing in its scraped surfaces and layered color a history of decisions, revisions, and discoveries.
More than six decades after its creation, Peinture 161 x 200 cm 14 novembre 1958 remains a powerful statement of Soulages’s artistic vision. In its bold contrasts, rhythmic interplay of forms, and luminous depths, the painting embodies the essential qualities that have made Soulages one of the most enduring and influential figures in modern abstraction. It stands as both a historical artifact of a pivotal moment in twentieth-century art and a timeless meditation on the fundamental forces of light, matter, and perception.