3 Decembre 1966

Notice how the black areas in this painting seem to darken before your eyes. French artist Pierre Soulages has spent his entire career exploring how black paint reflects light and space by creating grand strokes on canvas with a large brush. Unlike the expressive gestures of the Abstract Expressionists seen nearby, Soulages’ work evokes a sense of permanence and architectural weightiness. Inspired in part by church windows, he contrasts his black forms with slivers of light paint, suggesting the feeling of looking out toward a brilliant light from within a darkened interior.

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