Famed French painter of black Pierre Soulages dies aged 102

French painter Pierre Soulages next to one of his works at the Pompidou Centre in Paris (Remy de la Mauviniere/AP)

French painter Pierre Soulages, a star of post-Second World War European abstract art famed for his use of black, has died aged 102, according to the Soulages Museum in his home town of Rodez.

Soulages became highly influential for his reflections of black, which he called “noir-lumiere”, or “black-light”, and was seen as France’s greatest living painter in recent years.