Sale: 461 / Post War I, Dec. 09. 2017 in Munich Lot 821

 

821
Serge Poliakoff
Composition abstraite, 1960.
Oil on canvas
Estimate:
€ 140,000 / $ 151,200
Sold:
€ 175,000 / $ 189,000

(incl. surcharge)
Composition abstraite. 1960.
Oil on canvas.
Poliakoff 60-81. Lower left signed. Verso signed and dated. 60 x 73 cm (23.6 x 28.7 in).

Accompanied by a photo expertise issued by Marcelle Poliakoff on 22 February, 1975.

PROVENANCE: Private collection Southern Germany.
Formerly in collection Sabet, Geneva.
Gallerie Falchi, Milan.

EXHIBITION: Serge Poliakoff, Galleria Lorenzelli, Bergamo, 6 December 1970 - 10 January 1971, cat. no. 13, with illu. in black and white.

"Many people say there is nothing to discover in abstract painting. If you ask me, I could live three lifes and I still wouldn't have said everything that I have seen." (Serge Poliakoff, quote after: Künstler. Kritisches Lexikon der Gegenwartskunst, volume 31, issue 21, III 1995, p. 2)

Along with Jean Dubuffet, Pierre Soulages, Jean Fautrier and others Serge Poliakoff is among the main representatives of a circle of artists which made history as the "Nouvelle École de Paris". Even though the term may suggest something different, the "Nouvelle École de Paris" was not a school or stylistic movement in a narrow sense, but rather a development in abstract painting in Paris after Wolrd War II that lasted into the early 1960s. Poliakoff developed a very individual form of abstract painting by placing the individual color fields side by side. This painting, atmospherically dense owed to the highly reduced coloring, marks the peak of an artistic development that was also crucial in formal terms. In his later period of creation Poliakoff reduced the strong polychromy in favor of a more muted palette and shows, as it is the case with this composition, a tendency towards a more monochrome design. Just the two yellow and the three black color fields structurize and accentuate the red, which is modulated in nuances that range from heavy to brilliant, and create a very balanced color chord. Poliakoff's abstract oeuvre was presented at numerous international exhibitions as of the late 1950s. In 1960 the Kunsthalle Bern honored him in a comprehensive solo show which comprised 137 abstract compositions. The early 1960s marked the peak of the artist's international recognition, he was represented at the Venice Biennial with an own showroom in 1962. Poliakoff works, made with incessant creative powers, invite us to discover abstract painting over and over: "Many people say there is nothing to discover in abstract painting. If you ask me, I could live three lifes and I still wouldn't have said everything that I have seen." (Serge Poliakoff, quote after: Künstler. Kritisches Lexikon der Gegenwartskunst, volume 31, issue 21, III 1995, p. 2).



821
Serge Poliakoff
Composition abstraite, 1960.
Oil on canvas
Estimate:
€ 140,000 / $ 151,200
Sold:
€ 175,000 / $ 189,000

(incl. surcharge)