Pierre SOULAGES (1919-2022) - Lot 135

Pierre SOULAGES (1919-2022) Lithograph n°35, 1974, lithograph, 47.5 x 75 cm, margins 59.5 x 89.5 cm (Encrevé et Miessner 84), fine artist's proof printed in colors, signed, edition of approximately 100 proofs, yellowing in the upper and right margins, small tear in the lower left margin. This work by Pierre Soulages comes from the Pierre and Françoise Dumayet collection, who knew Pierre Soulages very well. Below is a transcript of an interview between Pierre S and Pierre D for the TV program "VOCATIONS", in which Pierre Soulages talks about the emergence of his vocation as a painter in 1969. Pierre Soulages: No, I don't agree with the word, no, because you'd have to know exactly what vocation means, you'd need a dictionary to have the exact definition of the word vocation, Pierre Dumayet: What bothers you is the proximity to religious expression, the religious meaning it has? Pierre Soulages: Yes, or it's this sort of calling that it seems to be, so it's something that's external to an individual, it seems to be called, whereas for me it's something that came very naturally, like that, one fine day I knew I'd be a painter, deep down I knew I'd be a painter, I knew that I would do everything in my life to do nothing but paint, in other words, one day I considered that painting was the most important thing I could do, at least for me, and in the end it was the only thing I would like to do, so yes, one day I knew that, I became aware of it. How did it come about, so that...?! Deep down I know how it came about, well I know when I became aware of it, that I remember, I told you so. After a visit to a Romanesque abbey near Rodez, the place where I was born, I was very impressed by what I saw, by the architecture, by the sculpture, by the art, and I think that day, deep down inside, I decided to take care of these things, by doing.... them all my life, well, to try to do that all my life, that day I knew, I must have been 13 -14 years old. I became a painter because I've always loved painting, because I've always painted, when I was a child I painted, and then I became a painter because one day I realized I had a passion for painting, that's how it happened. Pierre Dumayet: That's the first discovery then, the second being the abbey in a sense, it's not quite the opposite, is it? Pierre Soulages: Ah, I don't know, I used to paint, but I didn't know I had a passion for painting, just as there are vices that you practice, and then you realize that they're vices .... But you only realize it afterwards..... Vocations - 17.08.1969 Producer / co-producer Office national de radiodiffusion télévision française Director: Igor Barrère Presenter: Pierre Dumayet Participant: Pierre Soulages Producers: Pierre Dumayet, Jean Frapat, Gérard Guillaume Expert: Antoine Cahen