Poliakoff, Serge

Description:

Moskau, 1900 - Paris, 1969
89 x 116 cm, R.
"Composition abstraite rouge et vert", 1962. Oil and tempera on canvas. Signed in oil lower right und signed on the reverse of the canvas.
Poliakoff, III, 62-28.
With a photographic expertise by Alexis Poliakoff, dated 10 January 1985.
Studio of the artist.
Galerie Der Spiegel, Köln (with gallery label on the reverse).
Sotheby’s, London.
Galerie Denise René Hans Mayer, Düsseldorf (with gallery label on the reverse).
Collection Monika and Horst Bülow, Leonberg, acquired there in 1985.
Exhibition:
"Serge Poliakoff", Kestner-Gesellschaft, Hannover, Kunsthalle Bremen, Museum am Ostwall, Dortmund (with exhibition label on the reverse), Württembergischer Kunstverein, Stuttgart, Haus am Waldsee, Berlin and Städtisches Museum, Trier, 1963.
Serge Poliakoff is one of the foremost exponents of post-1945 abstract painting in Europe. In Paris, where he lived from the 1930s, he developed a pictorial language distinguished by quietude, a meditative focus on form and colour, and a unique balance of rigor and organic freedom. The 1950s and 1960s saw the maturity of his expression - works such as "Composition abstraite" (1962) are exemplary of this phase.
The painting shows Poliakoff’s characteristic irregular, interlocking colour zones, not bounded by lines but mutually determining one another and supported by surrounding space. The forms feel their way inward without constructing a calculated center. The result is not a rigid layout but an organically grown fabric arising from the inner logic of its planes. Poliakoff’s painting grows inward rather than outward - drawing the gaze into the depth of chromatic relationships instead of asserting an expressive outward gesture.
The palette is restrained and nuanced. Deep reds and blues form the ground, against which lighter areas in gray and white emerge. Subtle gradations create a quiet tension that lies not in contrast but in the consonance of tones. The calm, balanced effect leads beyond the merely visible into an almost metaphysical dimension.
Poliakoff himself regarded this stillness as a central goal. Wieland Schmied quotes it in the catalogue for the major retrospective at the Kestner-Gesellschaft Hannover in 1962/63, using the artist's words: "Wenn ein Bild schweigsam ist, bedeutet es für mich einen großen künstlerischen Erfolg. Einige meiner Bilder fangen mit großem Tumult an, sie sind explosiv, aber ich bin nicht eher zufrieden, bis die Stille in das Bild gebracht habe." That exhibition marked a high point of Poliakoff’s reception in Germany and placed him alongside other leading protagonists of European abstraction.
"Composition abstraite" embodies this striving for a self-contained, silent painting in exemplary fashion - the planes are not casually juxtaposed but the result of a cautious, probing process. Poliakoff understood his art not as illustration but as a spiritual construction of colour and form that conveys a state of concentration and poise.
Thus, the work appears not as a loud, effects-driven picture but as a meditative ensemble in which organic forms and subtly graded colours find inner harmony. In this quiet intensity lies the enduring fascination of Poliakoff’s painting, shown with particular clarity in this 1962 canvas.