The Fabre Museum in Montpellier is celebrating a significant milestone this summer with a comprehensive retrospective dedicated to Pierre Soulages, the renowned French painter who passed away in October 2022. The exhibition marks the 20th anniversary of Soulages' generous donation of 20 of his paintings to the museum in 2005.

'More than any other, this museum has mattered to me,' Soulages once said about the Fabre Museum, which he first discovered in 1941 at the age of 22. This retrospective writes a new chapter in the long-standing relationship between the painter and the institution that helped shape his artistic vision.

The exhibition, titled 'Pierre Soulages: The Encounter,' presents an extraordinary dialogue between the inventor of 'outrenoir' and masters throughout art history. Michel Hilaire, the exhibition's general curator, explains the ambitious scope: 'We have placed Soulages within the grand history of art alongside the great masters of the past, from the 17th century, but also with artists like Van Gogh, Cézanne, and Mondrian, as well as his contemporaries and friends with whom he developed very fruitful dialogues, such as Zao Wou-Ki and Pierrette Bloch.'

The retrospective spans approximately 80 years of Soulages' creative output, featuring paintings, works on paper, and bronze sculptures. What makes this exhibition particularly special is its inclusion of rarely seen or never-before-exhibited works. The display is punctuated by creations from about twenty different artists, creating meaningful conversations across centuries and styles.

Light serves as both the central theme of Soulages' work and the guiding thread of this retrospective. In one striking gallery, Soulages' paintings from the 1950s are displayed alongside works by masters of chiaroscuro, including Rembrandt. This juxtaposition highlights the painter's lifelong fascination with the interplay between light and darkness.

'There are the first walnut stains from the late 1940s, moving through the great chiaroscuro period of the 1950s, and also the opposition of whites and blacks that we see frequently in the 1960s and 1970s,' Hilaire elaborates. 'There is always a quest for light. And this quest for light was ultimately resolved with his famous outrenoir, which is now a label attached to Soulages' name and also a form of culmination after 1979.'

The outrenoirs – paintings where black is the sole pigment – occupy a prominent place in the exhibition. Visitors can see the very first preserved outrenoir dating from April 14, 1979, as well as a rarely exhibited series of seven large-format works from the early 1990s. This particular series belongs to Colette Soulages, the painter's widow, and has seldom been shown to the public.

Perhaps most remarkably, the exhibition unveils two completely unprecedented late works from 2020 and 2021. Maud Marron-Wojewodzki, the exhibition's scientific curator, emphasizes their significance: 'Two outrenoirs that are totally unprecedented – they have never been shown before. It's fascinating and particularly moving to see how, until the end of his life, well past the age of 100, Pierre Soulages continued to experiment. In one of the outrenoirs, we notably see a totally unprecedented reflection effect, unlike anything we had ever seen before. It's truly a mirror that we have before our eyes.'

These final works demonstrate Soulages' relentless innovation and dedication to his craft, even in his centenarian years. The reflection effects he achieved represent a new development in his already revolutionary technique, showing that artistic evolution continued right up until his final creative moments.

The exhibition's curatorial approach places Soulages in conversation with masters like Francisco de Zurbarán, creating unexpected but illuminating juxtapositions. These dialogues reveal how Soulages' work both emerged from and transcended traditional artistic boundaries, establishing him as a unique voice in contemporary art while honoring his deep connection to art history.

To conclude the visitor experience, the museum offers an immersive virtual reality journey that transports guests into three significant spaces in Soulages' life and work. The virtual experience includes his personal studio, the Abbey Church of Sainte-Foy in Conques where he created stunning stained glass windows, and the terrace of his house in Sète overlooking the Mediterranean Sea. This technological innovation allows visitors to experience the environments that shaped and inspired the master's vision.

The retrospective not only celebrates Soulages' artistic legacy but also demonstrates the enduring power of his revolutionary approach to black paint and light. His invention of outrenoir – literally meaning 'beyond black' – transformed how we understand the possibilities of monochromatic painting, proving that limitation can become liberation in the hands of a true master.

The exhibition 'Pierre Soulages: The Encounter' runs at the Fabre Museum in Montpellier through January 4, 2026, offering visitors an extended opportunity to experience this comprehensive tribute to one of France's most innovative painters.