皮耶·蘇拉吉

Galerie de France, Paris

Gildo Caputo, Paris

Bouba Liberaki-Caputo, Paris

Sale: Hoebanx & Couturier Paris, 30 May 1994, Lot 34

Private Collection

Sale: Christie's, London, Post-War and Contemporary Art, 9 February 2007, Lot 165

Acquired directly from the above by the present owner

Montreal, Musée d'Art Contemporain, Soulages, 1968

Tehran, Negarkhaneh Saman Galerie, 1975

Pierre Encrevé, Soulages, L'oeuvre complet; Peintures, 1959-1978, Vol. II, Paris 1995, p. 156, no. 555, illustrated in colour

Colour: The colours in the catalogue illustration are fairly accurate, although the black pigment is denser in the original. Condition: This work is in very good condition. Close inspection reveals traces of wear and minor associated losses in places to the extreme edges which are only visible when the work is unframed. Very close inspection reveals a short scratch and associated speck of loss towards the lower left corner and another short rubmark towards the top edge to the centre of top left quadrant. There is an extremely short and faint horizontal hairline crack towards the centre of the bottom edge, left of the centre. No restoration is apparent when examined under ultraviolet light.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Formed of powerful sweeps of inky black and glowing pigment, Peinture, 29 Mai 1965 reveals Pierre Soulages’ total mastery of purely abstract form and his superb utilisation of darkly toned fields of colour. The work features an interesting history: Peinture, 29 Mai 1965 was owned for a time by Gildo Caputo, the French gallerist who worked at the legendary Galerie de France in Paris, a space where Soulages exhibited frequently alongside other leading avant-garde artists. In 1968 Caputo married the Greek sculptor Aglaia Liberaki, and it is to her that Soulages has touchingly dedicated the present work on the occasion of her birthday on 23 June 1968.

Within Peinture, 29 Mai 1965, the luminous hues of the central segment appear to glow as a result of the encroaching areas of deep black at either side, black signalling paramount importance for Soulages throughout his career. The artist recalled that his earliest works were influenced by his discovery of black tones in nature, making particular reference to the sight of tree branches silhouetted against the sky: “Was my childhood fondness for bare trees due to my love of black as a colour? Or was it the other way round? Did I begin to love black because of the trees in winter without their leaves; because of the way the black trunks and branches stood out against the background of sky or snow, making them look brighter by contrast…” (Pierre Soulages in conversation with Bernard Ceysson in: Bernard Ceysson, Soulages, Bergamo 1980, p. 60). In its play of light and dark and the striking combination of black with warm crimson tones Peinture, 29 Mai 1965 arguably recalls the appearance of a sunset sky glimpsed through trees, revealing the continuous influence of these early memories of the natural world on Soulages’ painting of the time. Soulages was also strongly inspired by the rugged carved monoliths and menhirs that abound near Rodez in Southern France, the place of his birth: the powerful solidity of the paint surface, alongside the stalactite-like drips of paint across the centre of the canvas within Peinture, 29 Mai 1965 arguably pay homage to these primeval formations.

During his first exhibition in the United States in the 1950s, Soulages’ painting was compared to the work of the Abstract Expressionist artist Franz Kline in its scope and pioneering approach to abstraction: “Both these painters with significant differences in method seem well along the royal road to a new absolute expression; both are making significant history in the drama of contemporary abstract painting…” (Sam Hunter quoted in: Pierre Encrevé, Soulages, L’oeuvre complet, Peintures, I. 1946-1959, Paris 1994, p. 158).Yet, whilst the strong gestural nature of the paint surface within Soulages’ work does indeed invite associations with the paintings of the American Abstract Expressionist artists, in particular Kline, Soulages is much more deliberate in method, anchoring each sweep of pigment irrevocably in place on the canvas with authoritative precision. Soulages has consistently resisted attempts to categorise his painting through chronological means, declaring that: “I don’t depict. I don’t narrate. I don’t represent. I paint, I present” (Pierre Soulages quoted in: 'Interview with Michael Peppiatt', Art International, November-December, 1980). Soulages’ corpus is thus imbued with an air of timelessness, transcending conventional limitations of era or decade to project a singular beauty of form, colour and texture. Peinture, 29 Mai 1965 eloquently conveys this sensation of universality and immutability, and stands as a significant exposition of Soulages’ ground-breaking painterly style and technique of the 1960s.