
“Brou de noix” (1946) Credit…Archives Soulages/Artists Rights Society (ARS), NewYork/ADAGP, Paris.
French painter Pierre Soulages turns 100 this December, 2019. He is being accorded an exhibit at the Louvre. The only other painters given an exhibit there during their lifetimes were Picasso and Chagall. Since 1979, Soulages has worked exclusively in black, creating a series of works he calls “outrenoir,” or “beyond black.”

“Painting” (2008) Credit…Archives Soulages/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/ADAGP, Paris.
“Black is never the same because light changes it,” he said, in French, through an interpreter. “There are nuances between the blacks. I paint with black but I’m working with light. I’m really working with the light more than with the paint.”

“Painting” (1955) Credit…Archives Soulages/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/ADAGP, Paris.
Prehistoric art was his primary source of inspiration, Mr. Soulages said. “I always ask myself one question,” he said. “Who was this big ape who one day painted on the wall?”
(Nina Siegal, “Black Is Still the Only Color for Pierre Soulages,” NYTimes, 11-29-19)
(c) 2019 JMN
Exquisite Vapors
Banal Triangulations Ahead
These are voices echoed by Spencer Bokat-Lindell recently in the NYTimes.
The tone is that of a clubby commentariat hoist on its own effluvia trading lofty quips amongst itself.
I hope the party of Will Rogers will grasp the urgency of speaking plainly to citizens whose vote is needed to revive representative government from its coma.
(c) 2019 JMN