RADIANT, CAPTIVATING MASTERY

The highlight of Bonhams’ Post-War & Contemporary Art auction in London on March 12 is Peinture 128,5 x 128,5 cm, 16 décembre 1959 by the French artist Pierre Soulages (b 1919). This sublime painting is a masterpiece of the artist’s oeuvre and from his most important period. It is also one of only a very few executed in this arresting red and black palette. The work has an estimate of £5.5 million to £7.5 million. Soulages unusually employs an intense crimson to form the foundation for the painting. This differentiates the work from others of the same period, and produces a mercurial surface that constantly shifts under light. It also undoubtedly echoes the palettes of Soulages’ friend Mark Rothko, to whom the French artist was introduced in New York in 1957. Pierre Soulages is universally regarded as one of the world’s greatest living artists, and is still working at the age of 100. He has been honoured with countless museum exhibitions, including a current retrospective at the Louvre Museum in Paris. His work is in many of the world’s most prestigious museum collections. This work’s sister painting from 1960 is in the permanent collection of the Art Institute of Chicago. Bonhams Global Head of Post-War & Contemporary Art, Ralph Taylor said: “A radiant and captivating work of exceptional mastery, Peinture 128,5 x 128,5 cm, 16 décembre 1959 is perfectly proportioned and comes from one of the most decisive and productive periods of Soulages’ long career.”