Soulages in America

In 1948, America came knocking unexpectedly at the door of Pierre Soulages (born 1919). James Johnson Sweeney, then curator at MoMA and future director of the Guggenheim Museum, had heard talk in Paris of a painter who worked in black with broad brushstrokes. He wanted to find out more. Thus began the success story of a young European painter in America. His thriving career during the 1950s to the mid-1970s consisted of shows at Betty Parsons and Sidney Janis, and exhibitions at the Phillips Collection and the Guggenheim. Hollywood celebrities like Otto Preminger, Charles Laughton and Alfred Hitchcock collected his work, which today may be found in the collections of more than 40 American museums. In 1954, Soulages joined the Kootz Gallery; when it closed 12 years later, Soulages found himself without American representation, and continued his career back in Europe, where he is among the most revered painters of his generation. Soulages in America contains a 2012 interview with the artist and his wife; a wealth of documentary material, including letters from Alfred Barr, Leo Castelli and Sam Kootz; correspondence from artists such as Robert Motherwell and Helen Frankenthaler; plus installation photographs and other archival documents.