The exhibition "Leidenschaft . Passion  -  In Focus: Pierre Soulages" opening at Museum Art.Plus on 19 February 2017 showcases works by the French painter Pierre Soulages (born in 1919 in Rodez, France).

An internationally renowned abstract artist, Pierre Soulages has been working exclusively in black since the 1970s, producing monochrome black paintings whose densely impastoed surfaces - at turns matt and glossy - he structures by means of deeply incised horizontal, diagonal or vertical lines and furrows that allow the paintings to enter into an absorbing dialogue with the light that falls on them.

Pour moi, le noir, c'est un excès, une passion. - For me, black is an excess, a passion

Pierre Soulages

The artist sums up his obsession with his favourite colour.

Passion is the driving force of art. Complementing Pierre Soulages's paintings in the two central rooms are two- and three-dimensional works by other international artists in the adjacent spaces. The colour black is a leitmotif that runs through the entire exhibition. Abstract or figurative, on its own or in contrast with other colours, it has a different effect in each work.

The multifaceted exhibition allows visitors to reacquaint themselves with works shown over the course of the eight-year history of the museum and to get to know many of the collection's new discoveries.

Participating artists:
Manolo Ballesteros, Darío Alvarez Basso, Luigi Carboni, Tony Cragg, Philippe Dodard, Friedemann Flöther, Karl Gerstner, Ellsworth Kelly, Masayuki Koorida, Gerhard Langenfeld, Thomas Lenk, Helmut Middendorf, François Morellet, Nika Neelova, Nunzio, Pino Pinelli, Pizzi Cannella, Gert Riel, Stefan Rohrer, Piero Ruggeri, Felix Schlenker, Turi Simeti, Pierre Soulages, Sibylle Wagner

Publications

The following publications are available on request for this exhibition: