Soulages-Hartung : Affinités électives

“We were outsiders”: this is how Pierre Soulages (1919–2022) described his generation of postwar artists in a filmed interview about his friendship with Hans Hartung (1904–1989), which Perrotin screens here for the very first time. This video from the Fondation Hartung-Bergman, along with an array of archival documents (including letters, photos, and notebooks), constitutes the starting point of this exhibition. Parallels between the two painters are explored through a selection of artworks, and tools that have rarely if ever left their studios. Soulages and Hartung were stimulated by the Mediterranean atmosphere and built spaces for art (in Sète and Antibes, respectively) where they renewed their creativity and engaged in increasingly radical experiments. They continued to talk, support and inspire each other, and to exchange gifts, such as the magnificent Brou De Noix (walnut stain piece) that Soulages gave to Hartung in 1948 (receiving two drawings in return), which is lent to the gallery for this occasion.