Olivier Lorquin and Alexis Poliakoff present a collection of Serge Poliakoff's oils and works on paper produced between 1947 and 1964, 60 years after the exhibition organized by Dina Vierny in the same gallery.
The 1951 exhibition was a commercial failure: not a single work was sold, but Serge Poliakoff revealed himself to art lovers and made a highly acclaimed entry into the circle of great artists, for he had created a new kind of abstract art.
Poliakoff paints angular abstract forms that vibrate with the accumulation of matter and the superimposition of colors. The story goes that, fascinated by a sarcophagus on display at the British Museum, he scratched it to discover the different layers of color responsible for the power and brilliance of its surface. Similarly, his palette was restricted to the surface.
The role of color was to be as decisive in his work as his forms.
“We mustn't forget that every shape has two colors: one inside and one outside. Like the egg, which is white on the outside but yellow on the inside, and it's the same for everything.” Serge Poliakoff
This 2011 exhibition features two oil paintings exhibited at the gallery in 1951, as well as the third volume of Serge Poliakoff's catalog raisonné, published by Editions Galerie française - Münich.