Artist: Pierre Soulages [d'apres] (French, b.1919). Title: "Composition #2". Medium: Mixed media on paper. Date: Composed 1960. Dimensions: Overall size: 11 11/16 x 16 1/2 in. (297 x 419 mm). Lot Note(s): Bears spurious signature, lower right. Cream wove paper. Very good condition; some minor staining verso, not visible recto; minor rippling; no tears, holes, foxing. Comment(s): A painter, printmaker, and sculptor, Soulages had his first solo exhibition in 1949 at the Galerie Lydia Conti, Paris. In 1952 he created his first etchings. After 1955 he began to paint with even looser, slashing brushstrokes, sometimes with more fluid washes of color [as our present example]. A retrospective of his art was held at the Centre National d'Art et de Culture Georges Pompidou from October 2009 to March 2010. Soulages is often considered the greatest French painter of his generation. [28493-3-225]