SERGE POLIAKOFF (Moscou, 1900 - Paris, 1969) Lot n° 10

ABRATED COMPOSITION 1959 Oil on canvas Signed lower left: Serge Poliakoff H. 97 x L. 130 cm Provenance Former collection F. L., Turin (label on the back) Former collection Galerie Berggruen, Paris Sale Christie's Paris, 26 May 2004, lot 67, sold for €156,750 Sale Christie's London, 7 February 2008, lot 110, sold for £204,500 Private collection, Paris Exhibition Turin, Galleria Civica d'Arte moderna, 4 March to 9 April 1961, La Pittura moderna straniera nelle collezioni private italiane, reproduced in the catalog p. 109 Bibliography Alexis Poliakoff, Serge Poliakoff - Catalogue Raisonné, Volume III: 1959-1962, Munich, Edition Galerie française, 2011, cat. 59-53, reproduced in color p. 85. The work is referenced in the Serge Polikoff Archives under number 959057. "I was very struck when I saw Malevich's famous Square White on White Background. It demonstrated to me once again the capital role of the vibration of the matter. Even if there is no color, a painting in which matter vibrates remains alive" Serge Poliakoff in 1959, extract from the Catalogue raisonné, p. 18. Serge Poliakoff was captivated by Malevich's Suprematism in whom he had discovered an unsuspected master on the occasion of the exhibition "L'oeuvre du XXe siècle" organized at the Musée National d'Art Moderne in Paris, in 1952. The Berne retrospective that he visited on March 4, 1959 confirmed his aesthetic choices. In this abstract composition, the juxtaposition of colors exacerbates the vibration of the pictorial matter, the touch contains the vitality of the creative gesture.