Acrylic on canvas, 1988, by Hans Hartung
Size US:
Size Europe: 142x180 cm
Certificate issued by Fondation Hartung-Bergman
Condition: Perfect condition
Provenance: Private collection, France
Bibliographie : Hartung «abstraction» A Human Language - Pages : 96/97 illustration
Hans Hartung (21 September 1904 – 7 December 1989) was a German-French painter, known for his gestural abstract style.
In December 1939, he became a member of the French Foreign Legion. He was closely followed by the Gestapo and arrested for seven months by the French police. After they learned he was a painter, he was put in a red cell in an attempt to disturb his vision. After being released he rejoined the Legion to fight in North Africa, losing a leg in a battle. He earned French citizenship in 1945, and was awarded the Croix de Guerre.
In 1947 in Paris he had his first solo exhibition. By the late 1950s he had achieved recognition for his gestural paintings, which were nearly monochromatic and characterized by configurations of long rhythmical brushstrokes or scratches. In 1960 he was awarded the International Grand Prix for painting at the Venice Biennale.
Hartung's freewheeling abstract paintings set influential precedents for many younger American painters of the sixties, making him an important forerunner of American Lyrical Abstraction of the 1960s and 1970s. He was featured in the 1963 film documentary School of Paris: (5 Artists at Work) by American filmmaker Warren Forma.
Hartung died on 7 December 1989, in Antibes, France.