Pierre Soulages (1919-2022)

Etching n°XXXIV 1978 Etching and aquatint on Arches Vellum paper signed lower right and numbered XXXIV/XXXV lower left 43 x 37.7 cm Provenance: > Private collection, Paris Bibliography: > Pierre Encrevé and Marie-Cécile Miessner (dir.), Soulages, L'Œuvre imprimé, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris, 2003, n°36 Condition report: Inset Taken from Léopold Sédar Senghor's "Les Élégies Majeures", this etching illustrates the "Élégie de Carthage". It is extremely rare - especially in these dimensions - as it is taken from one of the 35 first copies of the work. "The first time I saw a painting by Pierre Soulages, it was a shock. I received a blow in the pit of my stomach that made me wobble, like a boxer who has been hit and suddenly collapses. That's exactly the impression I'd had when I first saw a Dan mask. It's no coincidence that Soulages' paintings always remind me of Black African sculptures and even paintings. It's the same disdain for vain elegance, which is not without elegance, the same obviousness, which imposes itself, the same grasping of the viewer at the root of life." Léopold Sédar Senghor