serge poliakoff moscow 1900 - 1969 paris red – orange

 SERGE POLIAKOFF
MOSCOW 1900 - 1969 PARIS
RED – ORANGE – YELLOW
1962-63
GOUACHE ON PAPER
SIGNED LOWER RIGHT: „SERGE POLIAKOFF“
60 X 46 CM
PROVENANCE:
PRIVATE COLLECTION, PARIS
EXPERT REPORT:
ALEXIS POLIAKOFF, NO. 863062
LITERATURE:
THIS WORK WILL BE INCLUDED IN THE CATALOGUE RAISONNÉE SERGE POLIAKOFF, VOLUME V, IN PREPARATION BY ALEXIS
POLIAKOFF
Weckmarkt 5 * D - 60311 Frankfurt am MainTelefon +49.(0)69.13 88 66 80 * Office + 49.(0)69.53 05 6110 * Mobil: +
49.(0)163.669 97 33E- Mail: [email protected] * Homepage: www.art-schuhmacher.deBankverbindung:
Frankfurter Volksbank. Konto: 904 210 * BLZ: 501 900 00Steuernummer: 013 868 02252 * Umsatzsteuernummer: DE 177
430 935 * BIC: FFVBDEFF * IBAN: DE 84 5019 0000 0000 904210
After World War II, abstract painting came to prevail in the fine arts. In the fifties, the pulsing city of
Paris was once again, and for the last time, a centre of the art world. To this day, the compositions by
the Russian emigrant Serge Poliakoff – who worked in the French metropolis – stand for the triumphal
advance of the so-called second École de Paris. Preciously executed in pure colour, his works hold a
lasting fascination that – however difficult to define – immediately casts a spell on the viewer and puts
him in a meditative state. The creative intensity of the irregular, asymmetrical forms, which often
exhibit a quality reminiscent of raw stone, culminates with enigmatic calm and order in inherent
tension. Yet it is not form alone but quite emphatically colour and chromatic matter that animate
Poliakoff’s works: the artist was a remarkable colourist who handled the spectrum of hues with all
mastery. His seemingly inexhaustible creative gift allows us to discover abstract painting anew in
every work.
Our striking composition in red, orange and yellow likewise reveals a powerful pictorial concept
distinguished by calm balance and admirable sensitivity. Perfectly coordinated colour values and
forms interlocking like pieces of a puzzle convey the artist’s virtuosity in especially impressive manner;
the composition is developed from the pure materiality of colour. It is colour that compels the individual
zones to intermesh organically, so that the influence of Medieval stained-glass windows is as evident
as visual allusions to Fauvism and Orphism. The surfaces vibrate, none dominates, and the artistic
idea of a harmonious system based on a principle of order can be sensed. Despite the fact that the
work is relatively small the compositional harmony of the colours culminates in an overall effect of
balance and also monumentality. For the artist, the colour tone was the profound expression of an
inner reality, and its immanent influence on the soul was Serge Poliakoff’s most important creative
reservoir. The two colours’ playful emancipation from their rigorous order makes of the work a
meditative image that is accordingly likewise to be understood as an artistic quintessence of creation,
origination and emergence whose special expressive value forms the core of this composition. This
work especially shows how Poliakoff used to work technically. He prepared his own pigments (the
ones he also used for oil paintings) for his works on paper. As a result the observer will discover the
traces of the pigments as little remarkable spots on the surface of the painting.
Weckmarkt 5 * D - 60311 Frankfurt am MainTelefon +49.(0)69.13 88 66 80 * Office + 49.(0)69.53 05 6110 * Mobil: +
49.(0)163.669 97 33E- Mail: [email protected] * Homepage: www.art-schuhmacher.deBankverbindung:
Frankfurter Volksbank. Konto: 904 210 * BLZ: 501 900 00Steuernummer: 013 868 02252 * Umsatzsteuernummer: DE 177
430 935 * BIC: FFVBDEFF * IBAN: DE 84 5019 0000 0000 904210