Pierre Soulages Lichtes Dunkel

“To speak of light in connection with black sounds paradoxical. But in reality, black is a color of light. You cannot imagine light without black,” says Pierre Soulages, one of the most important French artists of the post-war period. His works seem like poems of light and space that almost develop a life of their own. Soulages refuses to give them titles. He does not want to distort their appearance by aesthetic or moral justifications. In this film, Pierre Soulages talks in front of the camera for the first time in detail about various stages of his artistic career, with each period illustrated by examples from his work. The film was shot in the house and studio near Sète that he designed for himself. Soulages describes how his images are created and what he pays particular attention to when it comes to paper, canvas and colors. In his birthplace Rodez, he visits the “Fenaille Museum'. The young artist discovered menhirs with engravings from prehistoric times here, which preoccupied him a great deal. We also see him in the Basilica Sainte-Foy' in Conques. Since 1989, he has designed and produced a total of 95 stained glass windows for this church. Texts by Jean-Paul Sartre, Victor Segalen and others help to place Pierre Soulages' work in a philosophical context. On the occasion of his 100th birthday, the Louvre in Paris is dedicating a major exhibition to the artist in the Salon Carré in 2019. From March 28 to June 27, 2021, the Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz will present the second major museum exhibition in Europe on the occasion of his birthday.