Pierre SOULAGES

Pierre SOULAGES

Pierre Soulages is a French artist whose thick black brushstrokes, called outrenoir on lighter backgrounds, have characterized his paintings and engravings since the late 1940s. Like Jean Fautrier and Hans Hartung, he is close to the movement linked to abstraction in Paris and his paintings find an echo in the abstract expressionist movement which is emerging at the same time in the United States. The romantic and prehistoric art near his childhood home inspires the fact that he pronouncedly applies pigments in non-figurative forms. Soulages becomes the first contemporary artist to be exhibited at the Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg. Born on December 24, 1919 in Rodez, Soulages lives and works between Paris and Sète. The artist donates 500 works to the Soulages museum, which opened in his hometown in 2014.