A major exhibition at the Luxembourg Museum is showcasing a rarely explored aspect of Pierre Soulages' artistic legacy through his works on paper. "Soulages - Une autre lumière" (Another Light) presents 130 pieces, including 25 never-before-seen works, spanning from his early experiments with walnut stain in the 1940s to his more recent compositions from 2002.
The exhibition, running from September 17, 2025, to January 11, 2026, offers an intimate look at the master of abstraction's creative process. Thanks to exceptional loans from the Soulages Museum, visitors can witness the evolution of an artist who revolutionized modern painting through his exploration of black and light. The works reveal a constant creative freedom and intimate relationship with paper as a medium.
Critic Joseph Ghosn, deputy editorial director of Madame Figaro, praised the exhibition's revelatory nature. "Soulages' art blends modernism with African influences," he explained. "The exhibition reveals the force and energy of his gesture: initially very physical, almost like an irritation, then as you progress through the exhibition, the viewer becomes witness to something more interior and intimate that emerges in Pierre Soulages."
Ghosn emphasized how the chronological presentation enhances understanding of the artist's development. "We better understand his work; the exhibition allows us to penetrate his thought and gesture. By returning to his beginnings and following the evolution of his line, we traverse his life and work in a dizzying way - I ended up feeling dizzy!" he noted.
Philippe Azoury, journalist and critic, described the exhibition as "literally brilliant," highlighting how it presents "a Soulages at human scale." He was particularly struck by the dimensions of the paintings and the rhythms they create, calling the experience fascinating for both art enthusiasts and historians seeking to understand the artist better.
Azoury drew attention to a brief 4-5 minute archival interview with Soulages that illuminates the entire exhibition. The critic traced the artist's evolution from 1946 to 2002, noting how "in the early years, you feel the hand and the brush; after forty years of work trying to make his hand unnoticeable, the line comes naturally without the hand having to intervene. It's a life's adventure for Soulages to paint a black painting!"
The exhibition represents a unique opportunity to explore works on paper by Soulages, which are rarely featured in dedicated exhibitions despite revealing an essential facet of his artistic journey. From his first experiments with walnut stain in the 1940s to the powerful and varied compositions of subsequent decades, these pieces demonstrate the artist's continuous creative evolution and his profound connection to this particular medium.
This comprehensive retrospective invites visitors to rediscover an intimate and fundamental aspect of one of France's most celebrated abstract artists, offering new insights into the creative process behind some of the most influential paintings of the 20th and 21st centuries.
