Oil paint on canvas
Tate Modern
Tate Collection
Works with images
Works on display
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Collection
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/pierre-soulages-1968" aria-label="More by Pierre Soulages" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Pierre Soulages</a>
Painting 23 May 1953
Purchased 1953
abstraction
gestural
non-representational
<p>Soulages titled this painting with the date he finished it. He had started using heavy brushstrokes of black paint against a light background in 1947. His style became more energetic and gestural throughout the 1950s. Soulages has said that for him abstraction is a way to explore his imagination and inner experience. 'I work, guided by inner impulse, a longing for certain forms, colours and materials,' he explained in 1950. '[I]t is not until they are on the canvas that they tell me what I want'.</p><p><em>Gallery label, June 2020</em></p>
painting oil paint canvas
14 October 2009 – 8 March 2010
2010-03-08
14 October 2009 – 8 March 2010
2010-03-08
2009-10-14
Musée National d’Art Moderne - Centre Pompidou (Paris, France)
http://www.centrepompidou.fr
31 May 2010 – 1 September 2010
2010-09-01
2010-05-31
Museo de la Ciudad de Mexico (Mexico City, Mexico)
15 October 2010 – 2 January 2011
2011-01-02
2010-10-15
Martin-Gropius-Bau (Berlin, Germany)
2009-10-14
Pierre Soulages
Loan-out
17 May 2014 – 25 January 2015
2015-01-25
17 May 2014 – 28 September 2014
2014-09-28
2014-05-17
Tate St Ives (St Ives, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/stives/
2014-05-17
International Exchanges: St Ives and Modern Art, 1915 - 1965
Exhibition
21 May 2016
21 May 2016
2016-05-21
Tate Modern (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/
2016-05-21
The Disappearing Figure: Art after Catastrophe
Collection based display
Painting, 23 May 1953
support: 1949 × 1302 mm
frame: 1986 × 1331 × 50 mm
Purchased 1953
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<p>Soulages titled this painting with the date he finished it. He had started using heavy brushstrokes of black paint against a light background in 1947. His style became more energetic and gestural throughout the 1950s. Soulages has said that for him abstraction is a way to explore his imagination and inner experience. 'I work, guided by inner impulse, a longing for certain forms, colours and materials,' he explained in 1950. '[I]t is not until they are on the canvas that they tell me what I want'.</p>
</div>

Display caption
2020-06-01T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
<p><b>Pierre Soulages</b><span> born 1919 </span>
<br/></p>
<p><span><a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/soulages-painting-23-may-1953-n06199" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N06199</span></a> </span><b>Peinture, 23 mai 1953</b><span> (Painting, 23 May 1953) 1953 </span>
<br/></p>
<p><span>Inscribed 'Soulages' b.r. and 'Soulages | 23 mai 53' on back of canvas (the latter inscription is repeated on the stretcher, together with the artist's address in the rue Schoelcher, Paris)</span>
<br/><span>Oil on canvas, 76 ¾ x 51 ¼ (195 x 130)</span>
<br/><span>Purchased from the artist (Knapping Fund) 1953</span>
<br/><i>Repr:</i><span>
R.H. Wilenski, </span><i>The Modern Movement in Art</i><span>
(London 1957), pl.58; John Rothenstein, </span><i>The Tate Gallery</i><span> (London 1966), p.261 </span>
<br/></p>
<p><span>The artist wrote as follows about this work on 8 December 1953: </span>
<br/></p>
<p><span>'The <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/painting" title="Glossary definition for 'Painting'"><span>painting</span></a> "23 May 1953" (195cm/130cm) which the Tate Gallery has just bought was finished on 23 May 1953 and had been begun several weeks earlier. </span>
<br/></p>
<p><span>'This painting belongs to a series of works on a common theme. The first in date is a painting in turpentine on <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/paper" title="Glossary definition for 'Paper'"><span>paper</span></a> of 1951; followed by a small <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/c/canvas" title="Glossary definition for 'Canvas'"><span>canvas</span></a> "15 December 1951" (46cm/38cm) acquired by the Galerie Louis Carré, Paris; then taken up again in 53: "16 May 1953" (46cm/33cm), collection P. Bloch, Paris. </span>
<br/></p>
<p><span>'These works were not done as a conscious series of studies for the large painting you own, but are variations which nevertheless prepare the way for the painting "23 May 1953". </span>
<br/></p>
<p><span>'I choose to designate my paintings by the date of their completion; this is no more than a practical means of placing them in time and giving them a name.' </span>
<br/></p>
<p><span>For a later variant of the same theme, see 'Painting, 16 June 1953' (canvas, 41 x 33cm) reproduced in colour in James Johnson Sweeney, </span><i>Soulages</i><span>
(London 1972), pl.26. </span>
<br/></p>
<p><b>Published in:</b>
<br/><span>Ronald Alley, </span><i>Catalogue of the Tate Gallery's Collection of Modern Art other than Works by British Artists</i><span>, Tate Gallery and Sotheby Parke-Bernet, London 1981, p.699, reproduced p.699</span>
<br/></p>

Catalogue entry
2004-09-15T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
abstraction gestural non-representational