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Lot 201
Serge Poliakoff (1900-1969)
Composition en rouge bleu et vert
Closed12 February 2015
Price Realised
GBP 158,500
More Information
Specialist note
‘If you let it, your colour will take charge of you ... Similarly with your forms: the spontaneous form for an artist to use is always an organic one, but you’ve got to be in control of it. A child will use all the colours in the box at once, instinctively, and if you don’t want to make that same mistake you’ve got to go on studying hard and for a long time’
(S. Poliakoff, quoted in Serge Poliakoff, Retrospective 1938-1963, exh. cat, Whitechapel Gallery, London, 1963, p. 13).
Painted in 1967, Composition en rouge bleu et vert exudes the compositional strength and understanding of form that is so characteristic of Serge Poliakoff’s mature work. The brilliant fields of blue and green interlock with two contrasting slabs of bright warm red, providing the composition with an incredible chromatic and formal equilibrium, reminiscent of gothic stained glass windows. A professional musician until 1952, Poliakoff aimed at creating a composition in which all the elements - colour, proportion, form - are completely resolved. In this sense, Composition en rouge bleu et vert’s graceful asymmetry witnesses the artist’s treatment of the canvas as a musical score upon which an harmony of colours and shapes plays out. Its controlled energy is embodied in refined tonal juxtapositions and carefully modeled organic shapes which give the painting an arrestingly fresh and expressive strength. Poliakoff sought to liberate himself from a system of lines and experimented with colours. The chromatic brilliance showcased by Poliakoff in this work witnesses the influence of the early-Abstractionists Sonia and Robert Delaunay and Vasily Kandinsky, who he first met in Paris in the late 1930s and with whom he developed long-lasting friendships. ‘If you let it, your colour will take charge of you’ Poliakoff once said. ‘Similarly with your forms: the spontaneous form for an artist to use is always an organic one, but you’ve got to be in control of it. A child will use all the colours in the box at once, instinctively, and if you don’t want to make that same mistake you’ve got to go on studying hard and for a long time’ (S. Poliakoff, quoted in Serge Poliakoff, Retrospective 1938-1963, exh. cat, Whitechapel Gallery,
London, 1963, p. 13).
By the early 1960s Poliakoff’s reputation as one of the leading painters of his day was established; he had had numerous international solo exhibitions throughout the 1950s, and in 1962 a room in the French Pavilion at the Venice Biennale was dedicated to his work and he was awarded the Order of ‘Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres’. In 1963 he had his first major retrospective at The Whitechapel Art Gallery, London. Examples similar to Composition en rouge bleu et vert are now held in the permanent collections of Tate Modern in London, Museum of Modern Art in New York and Musée National d’Art Modern in Paris.
(S. Poliakoff, quoted in Serge Poliakoff, Retrospective 1938-1963, exh. cat, Whitechapel Gallery, London, 1963, p. 13).
Painted in 1967, Composition en rouge bleu et vert exudes the compositional strength and understanding of form that is so characteristic of Serge Poliakoff’s mature work. The brilliant fields of blue and green interlock with two contrasting slabs of bright warm red, providing the composition with an incredible chromatic and formal equilibrium, reminiscent of gothic stained glass windows. A professional musician until 1952, Poliakoff aimed at creating a composition in which all the elements - colour, proportion, form - are completely resolved. In this sense, Composition en rouge bleu et vert’s graceful asymmetry witnesses the artist’s treatment of the canvas as a musical score upon which an harmony of colours and shapes plays out. Its controlled energy is embodied in refined tonal juxtapositions and carefully modeled organic shapes which give the painting an arrestingly fresh and expressive strength. Poliakoff sought to liberate himself from a system of lines and experimented with colours. The chromatic brilliance showcased by Poliakoff in this work witnesses the influence of the early-Abstractionists Sonia and Robert Delaunay and Vasily Kandinsky, who he first met in Paris in the late 1930s and with whom he developed long-lasting friendships. ‘If you let it, your colour will take charge of you’ Poliakoff once said. ‘Similarly with your forms: the spontaneous form for an artist to use is always an organic one, but you’ve got to be in control of it. A child will use all the colours in the box at once, instinctively, and if you don’t want to make that same mistake you’ve got to go on studying hard and for a long time’ (S. Poliakoff, quoted in Serge Poliakoff, Retrospective 1938-1963, exh. cat, Whitechapel Gallery,
London, 1963, p. 13).
By the early 1960s Poliakoff’s reputation as one of the leading painters of his day was established; he had had numerous international solo exhibitions throughout the 1950s, and in 1962 a room in the French Pavilion at the Venice Biennale was dedicated to his work and he was awarded the Order of ‘Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres’. In 1963 he had his first major retrospective at The Whitechapel Art Gallery, London. Examples similar to Composition en rouge bleu et vert are now held in the permanent collections of Tate Modern in London, Museum of Modern Art in New York and Musée National d’Art Modern in Paris.