Composition No 3 1957. by Pierre Soulages, b.1919

Pierre Soulages, b.1919
Scroll down for information.
Click here to return to the list.

Composition No 3 1957.

Original lithograph in four close tones of black and brown. 1957. Signed in pencil. Numbered in pencil from the edition of 200. Printed at the studio of Mourlot. Issued by Galerie Bergruen, Paris 1957.
Ref: Rivière - Soulages Eaufortes et Lithographies no 3
Note: A version of this composition was used as a poster for the Soulages exhibition at Galerie Bergruen, Paris 1957.

Very fine strong impression. On pale cream wove Arches paper. Excellent condition. Full margins. Sheet: 27 7/8 x 19 7/8ins. Image: 24 3/4 x 18 5/8ins. (630x475mm).

This item is sold.
Click here to enquire about this item.

Soulages was one of the most important and creative artists in the whole ?art informel - informal art? movement in Paris in the years immediately following the War. Like other painters in this loosely associated group he was seeking a way to create form and express emotional ideas without the tightly controlled structure which had come out of movements like Constructivism or De Stijl. To this end Soulages developed a style of painting which used broad sweeps of the brush with black laid one over another so that the underlying tone is glimpsed through the richness of the pattern of the upper black. His canvases in this style are some of the most dramatic, mysterious and exciting of the period.

When Soulages began to work extensively in lithography at the beginning of the 1960?s he discovered that the medium allowed him to add a new dimension to his style. The overprinted inks not only allowed the tone beneath the black to show through as a pure tone in the spaces, but also, because the ink colours do not blend or mix, but remain one over another, so the natural translucence of the inks, and the light generated from the surface of the paper, meant that each level of the strokes of the image existed both independently and together. It creates a unique and beautiful quality of mystery and light-movement within the prints.