ART-PRESENTATION: Hans Hartung-La Fabrique Du Geste
Hans Hartung’s dynamic and experimental practice evokes a powerful sense of self expression. His singular visual language established him as a leader in the field of 20th Century abstraction and has had a profound influence over subsequent generations of artists, in particular proving inspirational to the trajectory of American lyrical abstraction in the 1960s and 1970s.
By Efi Michalarou
Photo: Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris Archive
With 300 works, Hans Hartung’s retrospective “La fabrique du geste“ marks the re-opening after extensive renovation work of the Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris. The exhibition takes the form of a succession of chronological sequences divided into four main sections. In addition to the paintings photographs testifying to the importance of the medium in his explorations, groups of graphic works, illustrated limited editions, experiments with ceramics and a selection of painted stones round off this retracing of a singular life path. The visitor is introduced to the wide range of media, the wealth of technical innovations and the array of tools used during six prolific decades. For Hartung experimentation was all-important, as was the uncompromising, conceptually inflected modernism he embodied. Hans Hartung was born on 21/9/1904, in Leipzig, Germany. He cultivated interests in philosophy, astronomy, music, and religion at a young age before he turned to painting. Early in his career he found inspiration in the works of Rembrandt van Rijn and Francisco de Goya, and later influences included Lovis Corinth, Oskar Kokoschka, Emil Nolde, and Max Slevogt. At just 17, Hartung began to experiment with abstraction, synthesizing the graphic techniques of his artistic models while completely eliminating figurative elements. Hartung entered the Universität Leipzig in 1924 to study philosophy and art history but left to concentrate on painting at the Kunstakademie, Leipzig. While Hartung was advised to pursue further training at the Bauhaus, he opted to study at the Kunstakademie, Dresden. In 1926 Hartung saw an exhibition of international art in Dresden, which exposed him to Cubism and other modern styles that had emerged in France. His encounters with works by Georges Braque, Juan Gris, Henri Matisse, and Pablo Picasso, along with various travels abroad, encouraged him to move to Paris in 1926, where he spent the majority of his time until 1932, although he passed the summer of 1928 in Munich studying under artist and theorist Max Dörner. In 1929 Hartung married the Norwegian painter Anna-Eva Bergman. After several years abroad, they tried to reestablish themselves in Berlin in 1935 but were soon forced into exile by the National Socialist regime. In the years leading up to World WarII, Hartung’s work reflected his attempts to reconcile chance and control, combining expressive graphic elements with patches of black and color to produce a sense of spontaneity. During the WW II, Hartung was eager to fight against Germany, so he joined the French regular army. Due to his German nationality, he was be transferred to the Foreign Legion1939–40), and later in the Free French (1943–44). In November 1944, an attack occurred in the city of Belfort which left him seriously injured. Due to this injury, his right leg had to be amputated. Hartung returned from the war traumatized, but also impatient to continue his pictorial work after 5 years of interruption. Upon his return, he was very concerned about his injuries, but also about other artists. Artists who, unlike him, did not go to fight, and were therefore able to develop their careers and perfect their art. Hartung was a major figure in Art Informel and Tachisme. While Hartung’s postwar paintings are generally described as exhibiting a calligraphic quality, his work moved through a series of phases, becoming less spontaneous and more formally aggressive than his work from the late 1930s. Experimenting with rapid movement, Hartung used “grattage”, a technique where freshly applied paint is removed by scraping in order to create dynamic works with intense marks. Often fields of colour invade the canvas, compounded by aggressive scratches, depicting tension between the background and the surface. In many works of the late 1940s and early 1950s, such as ”T-50 peinture 8” (1950), he applied large areas of color to the canvas on which he painted a combination of bold black brushstrokes and thinner frenetic linear strokes. His first Parisian solo exhibition was held in 1947 at the Galerie Lydia Conti.
In 1948, Hartung participated for the first time in the 24th edition of the Venice Biennale, and in the succeeding 26th and 27th editions. He received the Guggenheim International Prize in 1956 and the Grand Prize for painting at the 30th edition of the Venice Biennale in 1960. In 1957, Hartung exhibited works at the Galleria d’Arte Moderna in Rome, alongside Lucio Fontana, Giuseppe Capogrossi, Alberto Magnelli and Giuseppe Santomaso. In 1966, the Galleria Civica d’Arte Moderna (GAM) in Turin, presented a retrospective exhibition that brought together more than 180 works. The exhibition Painting in France, 1900-1967, opened in 1968 at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, then toured to the Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York, later to the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco, and finally established Hartung in the USA. In 1969, a major retrospective was organised at the Musée National d’art Moderne (now housed in the Centre Pompidou) in Paris. He was awarded the Grand Prix des Beaux-Arts de la Ville de Paris in 1970. In 1984, a dozen large paintings dated from 1980-1984 were exhibited in the French pavilion at the 41st edition of the Venice Biennale. Hartung died in 1989 in the house that he named “Champ des Oliviers” in Antibes, France.
Info: Curator: Odile Burluraux, Assistant Curator: Julie Sissia, Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris, 1 Avenue du Président Wilson, Paris, Duration: 11/10/19-1/3/20, Days &Hours: Tue-Wed & Fri-Sun 10:00-18:00, Thu 10:00-22:00, www.mam.paris.fr
