POLIAKOFF, SERGE
1900 Moscow–1969 Paris

Title: Composition abstraite.
Date: 1965.
Technique: Mixed media on Canvas.
Measurement: 22 x 27 cm.
Notation: Monogrammed lower left: SP. Signed and dated on the verso: SERGE PoLiAKoFF 1965.
Frame: Craftsman's frame.


For the work a certificate from Alexis Poliakoff, Paris, dated December 4th, 2003, is available



Provenance:
- - Galerie Maulberger, Munich (according to the consignor)

- Private collection South Germany


Exhibition:
- Galerie Francaise, Munich 2005


Literature:
- Poliakoff, Alexis: Serge Poliakoff - Catalogue Raisonné, Vol. IV, 1963-1965, Munich 2012, cat. rais. no. 65-45, ill.

- Exhib. cat. Serge Poliakoff - Klangfülle der Abstraktion, Galerie Francaise/Art Cologne, Cologne 2005, p. 55, ill.



- Serge Poliakoff is regarded as a key representative of the Nouvelle École de Paris

- Late work featuring a dense and dynamic color composition

- Finely balanced fields of color in harmonious equilibrium, exemplary of his distinctive visual language

- His works are held in major collections, including the Guggenheim Museum in New York, Tate Britain in London, and the Museo Reina Sofía in Madrid



The Russian-French painter and printmaker Serge Poliakoff ranks among the most significant protagonists of the Nouvelle École de Paris and is considered one of the key innovators of post-war abstract painting. Born into an educated Russian family, he was shaped early on by the luminous colour palette of icon painting. In the wake of the Russian Revolution, he emigrated via Constantinople, the Balkans and Berlin to Paris, where he settled in 1923 and initially earned his living as a musician. At the same time, he devoted himself intensively to painting, studying at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière and later at the Slade School of Fine Art in London. Encounters with artists such as Kandinsky, Sonia and Robert Delaunay, as well as Otto Freundlich, led him towards a consistently non-representational, colour-based abstraction. From the late 1940s onwards, he developed the distinctive visual language of interlocking, clearly defined planes of colour that brought his work international recognition and secured him an independent position within European modernism.

The small-scale Composition abstraite from 1965 is a compelling example of his mature oeuvre. Bold red colour fields dominate the composition, contrasted by deep blue and a centrally positioned dark green form. The individual areas of colour interlock like a dense puzzle, not through rigid geometry but with subtly organic transitions. Despite its intimate scale, the work possesses a remarkable presence and conveys a concentrated, almost meditative tension. The restrained yet intense palette heightens the effect of the carefully balanced composition. The work exemplifies Poliakoff’s ability to create a complex and harmonious pictorial order through a limited number of precisely placed forms, offering compelling evidence of the artistic maturity of his later period.



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#Serge Poliakoff #Nouvelle École de Paris #Tachism #France #Post-War Art #1960s #Post War.







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