The Easel

1st November 2022

Pierre Soulages: Beyond black

Soulage’s lofty reputation undoubtedly benefitted from an immensely long career. Throughout, he stuck to a very specific concept of art – abstract works often painted purely in black. He resisted comparisons with the abstract expressionists because his sources of inspiration (primal art, such as cave paintings) were so different to theirs. And Soulages affinity with black? “[Its] an extraordinary colour. [It is not black] that gave meaning to [those paintings] but the reflection of light on dark surfaces”.