Switzerland Hosts Major Pierre Soulages Retrospective

The Fondation Pierre Gianadda in Martigny, Switzerland, is presenting a major retrospective of French painter Pierre Soulages, co-curated with the Centre Pompidou and supervised by the artist himself. Running from June 15 to November 25, 2018, the exhibition marks the foundation's 40th anniversary and features over 30 works created between 1948 and 2017. It includes pieces from the MNAM-CCI Centre Pompidou collection (shown for the first time), the Musée Soulages in Rodez, and private collections. The chronological display highlights Soulages's artistic evolution, with a strong focus on his "outrenoirs"—a term he coined for his signature technique developed in 1979, where black paint becomes fluid and reflective, transforming light into matter. In 2014, former French President François Hollande called Soulages "the greatest living artist."