Pierre Soulages

The mature work of Antoni Tàpies, Simon Hantaï and Pierre Soulages finds each artist addressing their materials with determined irreverence. Each in his own way has pushed painting to its sculptural limits: Tàpies with the introduction of sand, cement, marble dust and objects into his painted surfaces; Hantaï in laboriously bundling and folding canvases before approaching them with a brush; Soulages, in using thick oil paint as a material to be moulded and gouged.

This exhibition brings together the work of four artists who were instrumental in the evolution of post-war European abstraction, and looks at the different ways they invigorated their practice against the backdrop of an increasingly confident US cultural scene. Paris continued to be the nexus of European arts, literature and philosophy after the war, but it was clear that artists had to abandon the illusion that art could change society, and instead develop the notion of the artist as a liberated self-reliant individual. This impulse lead to painterly explorations with raw and unaesthetic materials and techniques, the use of paint as a flowing and vital medium and the use of impulsive and spontaneous lines and gestures.