“One day I was painting, and black had invaded the entire surface of the canvas, without form, without contrast, without transparency.

In this extreme, I saw a kind of negation of black.

Differences in texture reflect light more or less faintly, and from the dark emanated a clarity, a pictorial light, whose particular emotional power animated my desire to paint.

My instrument was no longer black, but this secret light coming from the dark.”

Pierre Soulages