AVEYRON MAGAZINE
Issue 2 Soulages Special
AVEYRON MAGAZINE
Art, History, Heritage, Food, Wine, etc. published by Experience (my) France www.ExperienceMyFrance.com
The Soulages Museum will open its doors on May 31, 204 at Rodez,
The museum, designed by Catalan architects firm RCR, is a pure
the city the contemporary artist was born at, and without any doubt the
contemporary building perfectly integrated into the landscape.
greatest figures of abstract art still alive in France. Designed not only as a showcase of the extraordinary art donation, The museum will house donations of Pierre Soulages and his wife
but as well as a reference tool aimed to support everybody’s discovery of
Colette granted to the community of Grand Rodez. A first donation was
modern and contemporary art, hence at an international scale.
made in 2005, shortly followed by one in 2012 making them among the largest ones granted by an artist in his lifetime. This contemporary art
Thus, the museum will spearhead attraction to a region where nature,
treasure has been estimated at US $ 65 million, including some
culture, heritage, savoir-faire and savoir-vivre are part of daily lives.
500 pieces of art and documents.
“I've always been wary of museums where everyone rushes for three years, then sink into oblivion.” ~ Pierre Soulages
According to Pierre Soulages, the concept of a museum bearing his name in the city he was born in 1919 has been carried away by his will of openness; to other artists, as well as a means fro the public to discover and explore contemporary creation. From the outset, he hoped for the museum architecture to deviate from the usual concept of the conventional monographic style, by adding welcoming volume sequences, as well as exhibition rooms adapted to the variety of art works to be presented. Furthermore he wished for a diversity of the pieces of art presented, on a rotating basis, as well as an additional temporary exhibition room of large capacity to host ambitious events.
ÛSoulages Museum (Photo Credit: Jean-Paul Azam)
The ‘brous de noix’ are paintings on paper of dimensions quite modest where Soulages paints lines of sculptural forces, similar as beams according to the art critic and writer Michel Ragon. He then uses a craft material, the walnut. From there, the lighter shade of the paper throughout the dark drawing on the top comes through, highlighting the contrast black against light which is commonly found in Soulages’s art, up to ‘Outrenoir’, a term he invented himself. Soulages, known for his ubiquitous use of the black colour in his paintings, uses other colours as well, such as reds, browns and yellows, or even blues. He works with wide brushes, the ones commonly used by house and building painters, re-adressing these tools, deriving from their primary uses, even creating new ones. Usually, his art is sitting directly on the ground where he adds, or takes away material, controling his own gestures, as he seeks the accurate relationship beween darkness and light. His artworks do not bear specific titles strictly speaking, thus are mostly determined by the techniques he used, as well as their sizes and the dates of their creation.
Oil painting, June 1st, 1964, 162 X 130 cm
Soulages artistic career has been greatly influenced by encounters he made while a child. His father was an ‘artisan’, thus he quickly understood manual work as well as the importance of the precision of the movements. At a young age he attended craft workshops on a regular basis, the carpenter, the printer, the fine cabinet maker, the saddler, or the blacksmith. always quite interested to everything relating to his own locale. He is quite enthusiast at
sharing stories about
Averyon landscapes, the
bare trees found on the
‘causse’, his fascination for
the ‘statues menhirs’
displayed at the Fenaille
Museum at Rodez, as
well as the Conques Abbey
where his vocation as
a painter originally took
ground.
Pierre
Soulages’s
mental
and
aesthetic
universe
is
populated
by
the
stones’
colours,
as well as the shades of rust, or the meandering formed by woods, cloudy skies. Furthermore, Soulages has a clear desire for simplification, looking at expressing the power of single elements.
‘Brou de noix’,1946, 48 X 64 cm
In his late teenager’s years, Soulages prepares himself for the competitive entrance to the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Although he was admitted in 1939, he renounced to follow through. After attending the Ecole des Beaux-Arts at Montpellier, he let go the idea of being a drawing professor but looked into spending his entire time painting. After WWII, he gained recognition as an abstract artist both in Europe and the U.S.A.. Furthermore, he got in contact with some famous abstract expressionists such as Rothko, Newman, or Pollock. But his art differs from the other European artists through his radicalism.
In 1979, his uniformly black paintings, as he called it ‘Outrenoir’ [beyond black], became the decisive switch in his art. The material he uses is worked out with tools, smoothed, shiny or matte, to reflect the light. The art viewer becomes an actor and his paintings started to becoming more and more impressive in size. After being commissioned in 1994, Soulages worked on the Conques Abbey windows, to unveil out-of-the ordinary new windows.
ÝPhoto Credit: C. R. T.
Photo Credit: C. Méravilles Ü
Conques Abbey’s windows are translucent, not transparent, made out of an elaborate white glass by the artist, capturing the light thus highlighting the Romanesque architecture.
From the outside and when inside, these windows are reflecting soft colours, changing with the day. Conques Abbey attractis close to 600,000 visitors a year.
Ă?Conques Abbey, close-up of the windows. Photo credit: Experience (my) France
An original proposition was made to Pierre Soulages, so close to his roots; creating a space at Rodez where he could showcase the different stages involved in the
stained
glass
windows’
creation as highlighted at the Conques Abbey. However, it gradually turned into a different project; a full museum dedicated to his works as well as other artists’ creations. Pierre Soulages wished for an open museum, not only dedicated to his art. A museum can reveal artistic stages, surprises,
accidents, all
processes found in an artistic creation and unveil arts, being ancients, modern, or contemporary.
Rodez, Photo Credit: C. R. T. Ü
In 2005, Soulages and his wife Colette donated to the Grand Rodez [community of towns including Rodez and nearby towns] an exceptional collection of 500 art works. This donation has been estimated at close to US $ 50 million, making it one of the largest made in France by a living artist. By the end of 2012, the couple added a second donation, 14 paintings on canvas, dating form 1946 to 1948, as well as from 1964 and 1967, and an ‘Outrenoir’, a large polyptych at the size of 324 X 362 cm. As of today the museum is hosting the world’s largest collection of the artist’s works with specifics, his first thirty years of artistic creations, more than 250 art works and 250 documents.
ÛPhoto Credit: C. R. T.
‘Bronze’ art works and their dies have been added to reveal each secret about the genesis of his works. As an example, three limited edition ‘bronzes’ dated 19751977 are presented.
Bronze I [Brass I], 1975,116 x 86 cm Ü
1919—Pierre Soulages was born on December 24, at Rodez.
1952—Soulages exhibited across Europe and met the public, showcasing his ‘Brous de noix’.
1937—Admitted to the Paris School of Fine Arts, refused to enter and returned to Rodez.
1954—Back in New York, exhibition in his own gallery, with the help of Samuel Kootz.
1940—Drafted, he moved to Montpellier, with Colette Llaurens he married in 1942.
1960—First retrospective in Hanover, Zurich, and The Hague museums.
1946—He moved to Courbevoie [Paris’s suburbs] and devoted all his time to his art.
1975-1979—Soulages creates 3 brass sculptures based on etchings molds.
1948—Soulages achieved his first etchings.
1979—‘Outrenoir’ period begins,exhibition at the French National Museum of Modern Art.
1949—First solo exhibition in Paris. Group exhibitions in New York, Sao Paulo, London and Copenhagen.
ÛÝPhotos: Patrick Aventurier
1984—A new retrospective of his art at Seibu Museum, Kyo, in Japan. 1986-1994—Achievement of 104 stained glass, Abbey of Sainte-Foy de Conques. 2001—Exhibition at The Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia. Soulages was the firs and still is the only living artist to be exposed. 2005—The Soulages couple donated 500 pieces of art work to the Grand Rodez. 2007—Soulages’s rooms are unveiled at the Fabre Museum, Montpellier. 2009—Retrospective at the French National Museum of Modern Art, Paris. 2010—Exhibition at the Strasbourg Museum, retrospective at the Berlin Martin-Gropius-Bau Museum. 2012—Soulages exhibition at the Fine Arts Museum of Lyon. Second donation from the Soulages couple. 2013—Exhibition at the Medicis Villa, Roma, Italy. 2014—Opening to the public of the Soulages Museum at Rodez.
Sainte-Foy Abbey at Conques stained glass windows Ü
AVEYRON Ă?Photo: Patrick Aventurier
MAGAZINE
Issue 2 Soulages Special