Serge poliakoff | city of paris museum of modern art

The exhibition is laid out in sequences revolving around key works: from his exploratory years and the postwar period – when he was part of the abstract avant-garde, showed in various salons

and caught Kandinsky's eye – until the more pared-down modernity of the late paintings (1968-1969). Like all practitioners of full abstraction, Poliakoff was concerned with the

relationships between line and surface, form and content, colour and light. BUT THE APPARENT FORMAL UNITY OF HIS WORKS CONCEALS A HOST OF PAINTERLY SOLUTIONS CLEARLY REVEALED BY THE

EXHIBITION ITINERARY. Crucial here are concentration of colour, vibrancy of texture and skilful arrangement of forms that balance each other in contained, energetic tension. This is the

interpretation offered by an exhibition that demonstrates the singularity of an especially sensitive approach and the intense spirituality of a body of work rigorously focused on what Pierre

Guéguen called the 'dream of forms in themselves which is the great mystery of "the abstract"'. The presentation is rounded off by a cluster of gouaches, while other

projects involving fabrics, stained glass and ceramics underscore Poliakoff's fruitful relationship with the ornamental. The exhibition is backed up by a MASS OF DOCUMENTARY MATERIAL –

PHOTOGRAPHS AND VISUAL AND SOUND ARCHIVES –PROVIDING AN INSIGHT INTO THE PAINTER'S LIFE. The tumultuous beginnings of a young Russian emigrant fleeing the revolution; the postwar

artistic ambience; and ultimately the years of success, during which his work attracted the attention of such figures from the worlds of politics, fashion and the cinema as Yves

Saint-Laurent, Greta Garbo, Yul Brynner and Anatol Litvak; but most of all, the young art scene of the 1960s, which saw Poliakoff as one of painting's most radical modernists. The

exhibition will be accompanied by a generously illustrated catalogue, published by Paris Musées. Price: 35 euros.