Pierre Soulages (1919–2022) was a French artist and a major figure in post-war abstraction. He became renowned for his lifelong exploration of black, treating it not simply as a colour but as a surface capable of reflecting and transforming light.
Working across painting, etching, lithography, and screenprinting, Soulages created compositions defined by bold gestures, strong contrasts, and a profound sensitivity to material and texture. His distinctive approach, particularly the works he described as Outrenoir, established him as one of the most original artists of the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries.