How Black is Black

We went today with friends to the Musee Pierre Soulages at Rodez, and we were prepared for something different.  We had been to an exhibition of the works of Pierre Soulages at the Pompidou Centre in Paris in 2009 and so the thought of a whole museum devoted to the works of this one artist was slightly daunting.

The exhibition we saw in Paris consisted of a collection of large canvases, totally black, showing the effects of light falling on textured surfaces.  And, to be honest, how many black paintings do you want to see, even if they have different markings on them?  So, we went today with an open mind.

One of the main things we wanted to see was the architecture of this museum, opened only last year.

This artists impression doesn't do it justice, but it was pouring with rain all of the time we were there!
The buildings are constructed from a type of steel(?) that corrodes and so it all has a reddish brown rusty colour.  The units appear to be sat on a lot of dark grey granite chippings and it achieves a striking effect.  Inside, the decoration is all dark, with lots of black walls, either painted or covered with what appears to be huge thin panels of slate - and lots of spot-lighting.  We found the building very impressive.
Once we started to look at the art within the Museum, we were pleasantly surprised as it covers examples of his work from 1947 up to modern day, including lots of work on paper.  

 

It was the art printed on paper using different techniques that Sue and I found the most interesting, although we differed in which areas of his work we liked the best!

(The quality of these photos is not good as they won't allow flash)

So, a nice afternoon with friends, lots of ideas for the artists, and somewhere where we will happily go again.