ART CITIES: Rome-Simon Hantaï
Known for his kaleidoscopic abstract works, Simon Hantaï originated the technique of pliage, in which a canvas is crumpled and knotted, uniformly painted over, and then spread out to reveal a matrix of alternations between pigment and ground. Born in Bia, Hungary, Hantaï studied at the Budapest School of Fine Arts from 1941 to 1946. In 1948 he moved to Paris after receiving a government grant to study there; after his grant was later revoked in the wake of the escalating Sovietization of his homeland, he decided to stay.
By Efi MIchalarou
Photo: Gagosian Archive
The exhibition “Azzurro” focuses painting by Simon Hantaï created in Rome and on the significance of blue in the artist’s practice, illuminating his affinity with Italy and the influence on his work of its classical painting tradition. Born in Bia, Hungary, Hantaï moved to Paris in 1948 and joined André Breton’s Surrealists, breaking with the group in 1955. Subsequently, he originated the “pliage” technique, in which a canvas is crumpled and knotted, painted over, and then spread out to reveal alternations between pigment and ground. After representing France at the 1982 Biennale di Venezia, Hantaï withdrew from public life, declining to exhibit new work until 1998. Following this extended isolation, he began altering a set of “pliage” paintings that he had shown in 1981, photographing them at an angle and producing prints from the distorted images. He continued to work largely in isolation until his death in 2008. It is significant that the exhibitiontakes place in Rome; Hantaï made his first trip to Italy in 1942 with fellow students from the Academy of Fine Art in Budapest, spending time in the capital, Florence, and Siena. In 1948, while traveling on foot from Ravenna to Rome, he visited the 24th Biennale di Venezia, where he explored the work of Max Ernst and Jackson Pollock. He returned to the country for a final time in 1982. These tours cemented his admiration for Italian painters of the proto- and early Renaissance, especially Giotto and Masaccio. The exhibition starts with the early canvas “Peinture (Petit Nu)” (1949), which depicts a figure against an intense turquoise background reminiscent of Renaissance frescoes. This is followed by “Catamurons” (1964), with its folded center and multiple color layers; “Meun” (1967), which incorporates unpainted sections in its corner areas; “Étude” (1969), in which uniformly folded canvas painted monochrome blue is juxtaposed with large irregular shards of white; and “Blancs” (1974), in which colorless passages occupy more space on the canvas than accompanying fragments of blue, green, and black. The centerpiece of the exhibition is an array of large-scale blue “Tabula” paintings (1972–76; 1980–82) that dominate the gallery’s ovoid main room. The monumental scale of these works reveals each square as the result of a unique, autonomous fold; the paintings also evoke the artist’s childhood memories of his mother’s aprons, the rolling and folding of which produced sequences of luminous color. Prioritizing touch over vision, Hantaï also imbued these works with references to historical artists including Matisse and Cezanne and, in their fusion of discipline and accident, to mathematical theory. The rarely seen “last studio” works (1982–85) in the final room feature unprecedented forms derived from folding and dripping, executed in balanced, vibrant color.
Photo: Simon Hantaï, Tabula, 1980 Acrylic on canvas, 117 ⅜ × 192 ⅛ inches (298 × 488 cm), © Archives Simon Hantaï/ADAGP, Paris. Photo: Thomas Lannes, Courtesy Gagosian
Info: Curator: Anne Baldassari, Gagosian, Via Francesco Crispi 16, Rome, Italy, Duration: 2/2-30/3/2024, Days & Hours: Tue-Sat 10:30-19:00, https://gagosian.com/
