This work is recorded at the archive of the Foundation Hartung Bergman, Antibes.
Hans Hartung was born in Liepzig in 1904. He was one of the most important exponents of the École de Paris, a pioneer of Abstract Expressionism, and he occupied an important place in modern European culture.
Hans Hartung’s work was very structured and systematic. For example, his works are named according to stringent principle. The titles are a combination of letters and numbers, each specifying the technique used, followed by the year of production and a code. As in the work offered here, entitled “P50-1975-H14” – P in this case stands for pastel.
His gestural compositions are also clear and reduced. His art was strongly influenced by his training in graphic art. His delicate strokes are often reminiscent of Chinese ink painting of calligraphy. He himself once described his early drawings as an “unprepared improvisation” and later defined paintings as the pursuit of “convincing perfection”. Hartung’s approach to the random of the intuitive is evident in this work after 1960, as the result of a long process of perfecting these two paradigms. With this combination, Hartung laid the first foundations of informal. In our present work from 1975, we recognise all these components: the energetic, sweeping, yet deliberate black lines, the spontaneous stroke of the brush, which leaves a gradient of blues on the picture surface as it is applied. The work shows the skilful expression of a well-ordered, spontaneous enthusiasm.
After a year of creating this work, Hans Hartung made this well-known statement “Everything that germinates and grows – vitality, resistance, pain and joy – can find its sign in a soft or flexible, contorted or proud, severe or powerful line, or in a patch of screaming, friendly or sombre colour”. Hans Hartung, 1976.
