ART CITIES:Hong Kong-Pierre Soulages

Known as “the painter of black and light” Pierre Soulages has forged a career remarkable not only for its rigorous invention, but for its longevity. Since the postwar period, the artist has evaded participation in such movements as Abstract Expressionism, tachism, and informel, rather contextualizing his paintings in terms of vitalism, classicism, and prehistoric forms.

By Dimitris Lempesis
Photo: Lévy Gorvy Gallery Archive

Already in 1948, Pierre Soulages refused the terms of lyrical abstraction “Painting is not the equivalent of a sensation, an emotion, or a feeling; it is the organization of colored forms, on which is made and unmade a meaning that we impose on it”. Soulages has explored such contingency predominantly with the color black, arriving at tactile canvases which might recall nocturnal landscapes or charred earth. Since 1979, he has pursued his series “Outrenoir”, whose title is a portmanteau Soulages defines as “beyond black”. The exhibition “Pierre Soulages: Outrenoir” continue the global celebration of his 100th birthday, also on presentation is a masterwork from 1953, a rare example of a large-scale painting from a pivotal date in the artist’s career. This painting has not been seen in public for almost sixty years. A contemporary of the American Abstract Expressionists and of artists working in Paris like his colleague and lifetime friend Zao Wou-Ki, Soulages has remained a key figure in the international developments of contemporary art. Soulages has explored the poetic possibilities of  his radical approach to abstraction, which he continues to pursue as an active painter. His “Outrenoir” is an ongoing body of work that examines the physical and psychological qualities of visual experience through the use of black paint. Applying dense layers of pigment to his works, Soulages treats black as a material, a conductor of light and dark rather than as a color to be used in the service of representation. As the artist declared: “I love the authority of black, its gravity, its obviousness, its radicalism. Its potent power of contrast gives an intense presence to all colors, and when it lights up the darkest of them, it endows them with a dark grandeur. Black has unsuspected possibilities and, attentive to what I do not know, I set out to find them”. The exhibition features recent works by the artist, some of which have been created over the past year, a testament to Soulages’s continuous experimental drive to develop his singular artistic language. Each canvas differs radically in form and texture, creating a dramatic optical interplay through its reflection and absorption of light. Exhibited for the first time ever, “Peinture 102 x 165 cm, 15 janvier 2020”  (2020) is the artist’s first use of a blue hue together with black pigment in over a decade, this canvas marks both an innovation as well as a revisitation of his past practice.

Info: Lévy Gorvy Gallery, Ground Floor, 2 Ice House Street, Hong Kong, Duration: 7/7-10/9/21, Days & Hours: Mon-Fri 11:00-19:00, www.levygorvy.com