NEW YORK • An exhibition of French artist Pierre Soulages opened in New York last Thursday just months before his work will be showcased in the Louvre to celebrate his 100th birthday.

Twenty pieces of art, mostly recent works but also several masterpieces from Soulages's eight-decade career, are on view at the Levy Gorvy in Manhattan until Oct 26.

The oldest is from 1954 and the "painter of black" - still prolific at the age of 99 - made two pieces, which were completed last spring, specifically for the show.

The works are an extension of Soulages' Outrenoir (Beyond Black) style, which he developed in the late 1970s when he made the radical decision to paint almost entirely in black.

The painter, who was called "the world's greatest living artist" by former French president Francois Hollande, plays with light by painting in thick black lines.

"Outrenoir is not an optical phenomenon," Soulages once said. "It's a mental state that you reach when you look deep into it, it's beyond black."

Most of the paintings come from private collections or are on loan from museums in the United States.

"For me, it's incredible because I don't know an artist who reinvents himself (like that) again and again. I never feel a repetition in the work of Soulages", gallery co-founder Dominique Levy told Agence France-Presse.

Soulages' star rose shortly after World War II and he is venerated in France and much of Europe as the Rothko of black - the "master of noir" - even if his fame has faded in the English-speaking world.

The Louvre in Paris will host a massive retrospective of Soulages, who is now based in Sete on the Mediterranean coast, in December.

None of the paintings featured in the New York exhibition will be on display in the retrospective.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE