Serge Poliakoff : Le suprême peintre de l`abstraction

The thirty works exhibited will mainly consist of oils, tempera and an interesting set of ceramics made during what is considered the artists' best period, beginning in the fifties and through the sixties when he ignored the influences of post-Cubism, fundamental in French visual culture, as he tried defining idea of space, built from a series of unusual components. Poliakoff began with abstraction in late 1930s, but after the war his style gradually shifted to focus on defining layers of color with irregular shapes embedded inside each other and creating clean but vibrant juxtapositions that give the impression of depth. 

Readily recognized as one of the most original modern abstractionists, Serge Poliakoff was able to define his painting with a unique style that is equidistant from the strict geometry-which he considered too cold-and gestural improvisation, so dear to his contemporaries, defining its layered backgrounds on the canvas with rigor and sensuality inherited from his culture-derived and evocative of the tradition of ancient Russian icons.