Lot 4 | Serge Poliakoff | Composition abstraite
1900 Moscow - 1969 Paris
Title: Composition abstraite.
Date: 1956.
Technique: Oil on canvas.
Measurement: 81 x 65cm.
Notation: Signed lower right: SERGEPoLiAKOFF.
Frame/Pedestal: Craftman's frame.
Provenance:
- Private collection Paris
- Private collection Germany
Exhibitions:
- Galerie Bonnier, Lausanne 1962
- Kestner-Gesellschaft, Hanover 1963 (label)
- Kunstverein Bremen, 1963, cat. no. 19
- Museum am Ostwall, Dortmund 1963, cat. no. 19
- Overbeck Gesellschaft, Lübeck 1963, cat. no. 19
- Württembergischer Kunstverein, Stuttgart 1964
- Städtisches Museum, Trier 1964
- Haus der Städtischen Kunstsammlungen, Bonn 1964, cat. no. 19
- Galerie Scott Fauré, La Jolla 1964, cat. no. 1
- Musée Despiau-Wlérick, Mont-de-Marsan 1969, cat. no. 13
- Mairie du VIe arrondissement, Paris 1980
Literature:
- Poliakoff, Alexis: Serge Poliakoff - Catalogue Raisonné, Vol. II, 1955-1958, Paris 2010, cat. rais. no. 56-61, ill.
- Exhib. cat. Serge Poliakoff, Kestner Gesellschaft, Hanover 1963, cat. no. 19
- Exhib. cat. Serge Poliakoff, Württembergischer Kunstverein, Stuttgart 1963, cat. no. 19
- Exhib. cat. Serge Poliakoff, Städtisches Museum Trier, Trier 1963, cat. no. 19
- Exhib. cat. Serge Poliakoff, Haus der Städtischen Kunstsammlungen, Bonn 1964, cat. no. 19
- By the most significant painter of abstraction of the Parisian postwar painting
- In the year of the painting's creation Poliakoff was winner of the renowned Premio Lissone
- By means of overlaying of colours Poliakoff creates an tremendously nuanced, multilayered and lively composition
‘Composition abstraite’
Serge Poliakoff's abstract compositions demand a lot from the viewer. Revolutionary and disturbing avant-garde works of art in the post-war period, now established classics of the ‘Nouvelle École de Paris’, it takes time to look behind the superficial ‘curtain’ of decorative colour fields.
Shades of grey dominate this ‘Composition abstraite’ from 1956. In large, sometimes very angular colour fields, they occupy the peripheral zone of the canvas. Smaller, coloured forms are built into the centre: a rich yellow, a light pink, a black and, as the only two-tone colour, red, which appears in a larger, angular form and in a smaller, approximate rectangle. The warm red pigment has spread across the entire painting. It appears in almost all the other colour fields, either as a shimmering, deeper-lying colour or as the last overpainting. Like a bracket, the red pigment connects the surfaces, which begin to oscillate when viewed for a longer period of time.
Overpaintings and underpaintings, as practised by Serge Poliakoff, could lead to the paintings changing over the years. Serge Poliakoff respected this ‘independent existence’ of his pictures. He liked the patina and also the fact that the paintings revealed their process of creation.
Well-deserved recognition
This painting dates from the phase of Serge Poliakoff's life in which he was now fully established after many decades of uncertainty. He was sure of his own artistic expression and had achieved a financial basis since 1952 that enabled him to make a living from his art. Now, four years later, his social and artistic recognition is so great that he and his family have their first permanent residence in Paris and can also afford some luxuries with which the artist, who grew up in the upper-middle-class circles of Moscow, is familiar: he becomes the owner of a racehorse and a (used) Rolls Royce.
In 1956, the year this painting was created, Poliakoff won the prestigious Premio Lissone and the first monograph on his work was published.
Alexandra Bresges-Jung
Modern, Post War & Contemporary Art
+49 221 92 58 62 300
Print this lot | Recommend lot |
Conditions of this Lot
32% buyer’s premium on the hammer price
Estimated shipping costs for this lot:
Arrangement after the auction.
Serge Poliakoff Nouvelle École de Paris Tachism Modern Art Post War 1950s Craftman's frame Abstract Painting Oil Shapes