A rare solo exhibition at the Louvre celebrates Pierre Soulages

PIERRE SOULAGES is a national treasure in France. Last month a painting of his from 1960 sold at auction in Paris for €9.6m ($10.7m), making him the country’s most expensive artist; François Hollande, a former French president, has said he is the greatest artist alive. In 2009 the Pompidou Centre hosted a vast retrospective of his work on the occasion of Mr Soulages’s 90th birthday. This year, to celebrate his 100th birthday on December 24th, the Louvre is bestowing an honour upon him that only two contemporary artists—Pablo Picasso and Marc Chagall—have so far received: a solo exhibition.

Mr Soulages is thought to have created around 1,700 paintings over the course of his seven-decade career, but “Soulages at the Louvre” displays only 20. The earliest work on show, “Brou de noix sur papier” (pictured), was made in 1946; the latest—three long, rectangular paintings with horizontal groove—were completed a few months ago. The exhibition, though small, illustrates both the coherence and diversity of his work, with a particular focus on his idiosyncratic approach to the relationship between dark and light.