Pierre Soulages : Une autre lumière. Peintures sur papier

Exhibition at the Musée du Luxembourg, Paris, 16 September 2025 - 11 January 2026

Rarely brought together in exhibitions of their own, Pierre Soulages' (1919-1922) works on paper nevertheless constitute an essential part of his artistic career. From 1946 onwards, he explored this avenue with paintings using walnut stain – a material prized by cabinetmakers for its transparency, opacity and luminosity, contrasting with the white of the paper – with broad, assertive strokes that immediately marked his uniqueness within the abstract approaches of the time. He also used ink and gouache for works whose small formats in no way detracted from their formal power and diversity.

This exhibition catalogue brings together 130 works created between the 1940s and the early 2000s, including 25 previously unseen pieces, from the Soulages Museum and the artist's studio. It invites us to rediscover Soulages in a practice that is both intimate and decisive, at the heart of his visual language.