Résumé

Peter Saul has consistently challenged art, history, and politics with his radical, unrefined style. Positioned outside of the canon of contemporary and Pop Art, Saul s exuberantly grotesque works feature an ironic and caustic humor that simultaneously breaks down and celebrates his subjects. Influenced by both French academic painting and MAD magazine, Saul s steadfast embrace of narrative and figuration in painting have left him at odds with every major movement in art as he has transformed over sixty years into a profound, albeit unconventional, history painter. This comprehensive catalogue, published on the occasion of the artist s exhibition at Les Abattoirs, Toulouse (travelling to Namur, Belgium in 2020), covers the artist s oeuvre since the late 1950s and presents many previously unseen paintings, works on paper, and archive materials.