Pierre Soulages: New Paintings

About

Bernard Jacobson Gallery is very proud to announce that in June we will hold the first exhibition of new work by Pierre Soulages in London since 1972. Now 90 years old, Pierre Soulages has been recently honoured by having a painting exhibited in the Louvre and a major retrospective of his work at the Centre Pompidou in Paris. This retrospective was seen by over 500,000 people, making it the 4th most visited exhibition in the history of the Pompidou (after Dali, Matisse and Kandinsky) with many more visitors than the top exhibitions of the past year in the UK - an astounding feat for an abstract painter. In 2002 Soulages became the first living painter to exhibit at the Hermitage in St Petersburg. A purpose-built museum devoted to the work of Soulages is scheduled for completion in Rodez in 2012. In 1979 after thirty years as an internationally successful artist, Soulages embarked upon a new type of painting. Having always been interested in light he began to make paintings which were totally black. These new works he described as Outre Noir (beyond black). With contrasting areas of matt and gloss paint and ridges and gashes across their surface, these paintings draw focus on light's reflecti on - changing with the light conditions and with the position of the viewer in front of the painting. This will be the first ever exhibition of these career-defining paintings in London.