Hans Hartung

Through modes of gestural intuition, craft and material command, the work of the German-French artist Hans Hartung (1904–1989) is distinguished by a pure painterly energy. A leading figure of Art Informel, Hartung combined material precision with notions of impulse, resulting in works characterised by a refined intensity. Known for his continuous innovation throughout his nearly seven-decade long career, the artist experimented with a range of tools spanning from tree branches to spray guns. With all of the breakthroughs that he made, Hartung leaves behind an artistic legacy with a lasting impact, and an extensive body of work which embodies the dynamism that predicated his life and work.

‘Everything that exists in the world is connected with everything else, in the same way that all Hartung’s lines and marks on paper and canvas are connected by the signs of time.

[…] Hartung rejected every canon that lay outside his gaze, which, ranging beyond every visual horizon, had turned in on himself, to the depths of his feeling and understanding, which offered him the only possibility of producing unique and original work.’

A. Barzel, Hans Hartung: In the beginning was lightning, Antibes: Hartung Fondation, 2007