The master of “black light”, Pierre Soulages has forged with the "thickness of silence" attached to Japan, according to Junichirō Tanizaki (1886-1965) and his Éloge de l'ombre, a complicity which, although purely fortuitous, is nevertheless tangible.

The Japanese themselves have supported the various stages of the French artist’s career since the presentation of one of his paintings in Tokyo, on the occasion of the first Salon in May, 1951. They are fond of Soulages’ chromatic contrasts, stripped of any sentimental and figurative charge, as well as the imposing and calm graphic breaths, and the materials conceived and shaped to attract the light. In the lines of his “sign forms” executed in walnut stain, characterizing the painter’s early career, some see echoes of Far Eastern calligraphy; for others, the thick layers of outrenoirs (beyond blacks) evoke the depth of maki-e lacquers, where the darkness appears sprinkled with light...

The purpose of this exhibition is to show another dimension of the Land of the Rising Sun, this time through the lines, sound and light that pierce its bamboo forests.Soulages’ “abstract sculpture” born from “the writing of branches in space”, according to the artist, is met by the stems and knots of bamboo modelled in chiaroscuro by talented artist of international renown Tanabe Chikuunsai IV. Heir to ancestral traditions and techniques, and currently the representative of a prestigious line of master basketweavers, the Japanese artist works with plants from a new, sculptural and luminous perspective.