Pierre Soulages
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Pierre Soulages (born December 24, 1919) is a French painter, engraver and sculptor.
Born in Rodez (Aveyron) in 1919, Soulages is also known as "the painter of black" because of his interest in this colour ("At once a colour and a non-colour. When light is reflected in it, it transforms it, transmutes it. It opens up a mental field all of its own."). He considers light as a matter to work with; striating the black surface of his paintings enables him to make the light reflect, this way black comes out from darkness to brightness and becomes a luminous colour.
Before World War II, Soulages had already toured museums in Paris seeking his vocation, and after wartime military service, he opened a studio in Paris, holding his first exhibition at the Salon des Surindépendants in 1947. He also worked as a designer of stage sets.
From 1987 to 1994 he executed the 104 stained glass windows of the romanesque church of Sainte-Foy in Conques (Aveyron, France). In 1979 Pierre Soulages was made a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
