Composition

An abstract composition by Serge Poliakoff, painted in 1965, one of the most accomplished periods of his career. The canvas is built from interlocking planes of colour that fit together like the pieces of a puzzle, with no single focal point and no hierarchy between form and background.

Deep ultramarine blues frame the composition along the edges, while the centre is dominated by intense reds that shift into softer pinks and darker crimson tones. The paint is applied in thick, layered brushstrokes, leaving a rich textured surface where underlying colours show through. This layering gives each plane a vibrating, almost luminous quality.

Poliakoff was a leading figure of the École de Paris and of postwar lyrical abstraction. His work is rooted in his fascination with Russian icons, whose flat fields of colour and inner light shaped his search for a purely pictorial space. Here, the balance between warm and cool tones and the tension between the shapes create a work of great density and quiet monumentality.