Charcoal studies
‘One day, whilst I was painting, black had taken over the entire surface of the canvas – without form, without contrast, without transparency.
In this extreme, I saw, in a way, the negation of black.
Differences in texture reflect light to a greater or lesser extent, and from the darkness emanated a brightness, a pictorial light, whose particular emotional power fuelled my desire to paint.
My medium was no longer black, but this secret light that emerged from the black.’
Pierre Soulages
