Pierre Soulages, France’s leading abstract artist

In France, abstract art emerged and expressed itself in many respects via a movement known as the Paris school. Like the Nice School, the Paris School was not exactly a “school” – a formula artificially created by art historians – but rather just a group of abstract artists who worked in France between 1940 and 1965 and happened to be located in the Paris (or Nice) at the time.

In the early 20th century, the First World War had already attracted several artists from various different origins to France. With the Second World War and the years that followed, other artists took up residence in Paris, including Serge Poliakoff from Russia, Hans Hartung from Germany, Gustave Singier from Belgium, Jean-Michel Atlan from Algeria and Vieira da Silva from Portugal … the art critics of the time compared these talents with the French representatives of “informal art” like Pierre Soulages, Jean Fautrier, Maurice Estève, Gustave Singier, Roger Bissière and Jean Bertholle.

Among all the French (by adoption, if not by birth) abstract artists, the most sought-after are those who have had the most success abroad, i.e. those who generate half of their auction turnover outside France. These are notably Serge Poliakoff, Hans Hartung, Vieira Da Silva, Jean Fautrier and Pierre Soulages and they are the only ones with million-plus auction results to their names. For the other abstract artists of the time with more local markets, like Jean-Michel Atlan (92% of his turnover generated in France) and Gustave Singier (80% in France), it is has proved extremely difficult to revive the acquisitive enthusiasm that occurred in the late 1980s and the early 1990s, and their respective auction records have not been beaten since…

Soulages on top

Pierre SOULAGES is the the most expensive living French artist. Today aged 97, his black brush strokes have captured reflections of light all over the world. His works have travelled in international exhibitions for over a half century, particularly since Soulages is considered a major precursor of the monochrome (his first black paintings date from the late 1940s). Today, his works hang in major museums worldwide. The Phillips Gallery in Washington, the Guggenheim, the MoMA in New York and the Tate Gallery in London all bought his works as of the 1950s. However, despite his notoriety and although 21 of his paintings have crossed the million-dollar line at auctions, his prices are much lower than those of American artists of his stature and his generation.
In the late 1980s, some New York auctions offered large paintings by the French artist at under $50,000, half the price they would have fetched in Paris at the time. Since then, his prices have rebalanced on both sides of the Atlantic. But London is where his highest bids have been hammered, including his absolute record for Peinture, 21 Novembre 1959 which fetched nearly $6.7 million in 2013 at Sotheby’s.
Much cheaper than the works of the American artist Franz KLINE (who also liked black monochromes, but on the other side of the Atlantic), Soulages’ paintings have nevertheless experienced strong price growth over the last decade with his price index showing a 327% increase. The strength of his market is the breadth of demand for his work since half of his auction turnover comes from France, just over a third from the UK and 5% from the USA, which is rare for a French artist.

Like Soulages, Maria Elena VIEIRA DA SILVA also enjoys an international reputation. His canvases with labyrinthine perspectives are currently selling between $100,000 and $500,000 on average and his gouaches can reach equivalent prices. Vieira da Silva is one of the few signatures that can elicit million-dollar bids in France. This has happened three times: twice in 2010 (once at Christie’s and once at Sotheby’s Paris), and once in 2011 at Tajan which set the artist’s absolute record at 2.1 million (for his painting Saint-Fargeau [1961-1965]).

Other abstract artists are much more affordable: an oil painting by Serge POLIAKOFF would normally sell for between $50,000 and $200,000 on average and a beautifully crafted gouache might fetch between 25,000 and $50,000. Oils by Hans HARTUNG from the 1950s still trade for between $50,000 and $150,000 on average, but perhaps not for long… his market is showing strong signs of agitation after Painting No. 10 “47.10 T” attracted strong bidding at the Hôtel Drouot in Paris (Fraïssé & Associates) in November 2015, fetching the equivalent of $1.4 million.
Less famous and hence more affordable are the works of Jean BERTHOLLE, Roger BISSIÈRE and Jean LE MOAL. Their fans can pick up well-dated paintings by these artists for between $5,000 and $15,000. Works by Gustave SINGIER and Jean René BAZAINE are more expensive and their price levels would benefit enormously from some international exposure.