Serge Poliakoff : Composition, 1969 – Hand-signed

By POLIAKOFF Serge (1900-1969)

Serge Poliakoff (1900–1969)
Composition bleue, verte et rouge — illustration for the poem “L’été”, 1969
Original lithograph in five colours on BFK Rives wove paper,
Hand-signed in pencil “Serge Poliakoff” lower right; numbered 55/115 in pencil lower left
Dimensions — Sheet: 38 × 28 cm (15 × 11 in.); Image: 28 × 18.5 cm (11 × 7 1/4 in.)
Condition: In very good condition, with vivid colours. unframed
References: Rivière 78; Schneider 78
Period: Drawn and hand-signed by the artist in 1969; the portfolio published posthumously by Erker-Presse in 1978
From the scarce portfolio Jean Cassou. Vingt-deux poèmes, Erker-Presse, St. Gallen, 1978 (edition of 115)
One of the lithographs Poliakoff created for Vingt-deux poèmes, the celebrated Erker-Presse homage to the poet Jean Cassou — twenty-two poems written from memory while Cassou was a Resistance prisoner during the war, each accompanied by an original print specially made for the publication by a leading artist of the day (Miró, Soulages, Hartung, Calder, Tàpies, Vieira da Silva, Zadkine and others). Poliakoff drew and signed his contribution in 1969, the year of his death; it appeared in the completed portfolio in 1978. The sheet shows his mature abstract language at full strength — interlocking fields of blue, red, deep maroon, green and pale blue, balanced and weighty, the colour dense and luminous.