Sale: 401 / Post War/Contemporary Art, Dec. 08. 2012 in Munich Lot 245

 

245
Hans Hartung
T 1971 H 33, 1971.
Acrylic on canvas
Estimate:
€ 30,000 / $ 32,400
Sold:
€ 34,160 / $ 36,892

(incl. surcharge)
T 1971 H 33. 1971.
Acrylic on canvas.
Signed and dated lower left. With title and inscription on stretcher as well as with arrow indicating the direction. 49,7 x 64,7 cm (19,5 x 25,4 in).

This work is registred in the archive of the Fondation Hans Hartung et Anna-Eva Bergmann, Antibes. The work will be included into the forthcoming catalog raisonné.

EXHIBITION: Galerie de France, Paris 1972
Galleria Soave, Alessandria (with stamp on stretcher)
Galleria d'Arte Sianesi, Milan (with label and stamp on stretcher).

"In my opinion the painting which is called abstract is none of the 'Isms' of which there have been so many lately, it is neither a 'style' nor an 'epoch' in art history, but merely a new means of expression, a different human language - one which is more direct than that of earlier painting." (Hans Hartung)
Hans Hartung was one of the few artists who spent their entire life working in an Informel manner. He began studying philosophy and art history in 1924 at the university of Leipzig, but soon changed to the Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Leipzig and then Dresden. He continued his training in 1928 with the painter Max Doerner in Munich. This period is reflected in his oeuvre in spontaneous, sketchy line compositions in which Hartung was guided by the inspiration of chance and analysed the tension between the areas of color and the lines. After a lengthy stay on the Balearic island Menorca Hartung settled in Paris in 1932. Here he met Kandinsky, Mondrian, Miró and Calder and exhibited works at the 'Salon des Surindépendants'. At the beginning of the war Hartung joined the Foreign Legion and returned to Paris in 1945 with severe injuries. He became a French citizen. His work during this period is characterised by suspended areas of color superimposed by calligraphic bunches of lines. Hartung had important exhibitions in Paris, Brussels, Munich and Basle after 1949 and frequently showed works at the documenta in Kassel between 1955 and 1964. He was honoured with the 'Prix Guggenheim' in 1956 and awarded an honorary membership of the Akademie der Künste in Berlin. He was awarded the Great International Prize for Painting at the Biennale in Venice in 1960. During the 1960s Hartung made monochrome areas of color in which he engraved rows of parallel grooves, thus introducing not only a calligraphic but also a three-dimensional element into his work.

Hans Hartung’s style is a very personal style, one for which he had fought hard. Despite all passion of expression, his works maintain a poetic vividness. He regards his abstraction not as a manifestation of an unconscious inner life that is automatically and spontaneously rendered in the image. Lines and surfaces are placed knowingly, not intending to express a certain mood, but to realize his ideas. His pictures seem to have been painted swiftly, improvised and spontaneous. The impression is deceiving but intended by the artist. Every painting is based on a number of sketches in which the composition is developed: "A long, very long period of consideration is crucial. The draft needs time to mature to get the most out of it, to go to limits and to get the substance. And in doing so I have to make an effort to maintain an appearance of freshness, spontaneity and improvisation " (transl. of quote after: Galerie Carinthia, Hans Hartung, Klagenfurt 1981, p. 4).

Hartung published his memoirs called 'Autoportrait' in 1976. One year later he became a member of the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris and in 1981 was awarded the Oskar-Kokoschka-Prize of the Republic of Austria. The large number of awards Hartung received for his work prove him to be an artist of international importance. He died in 1989 as one of the most important painters of the European Informel. [KH/SM].




245
Hans Hartung
T 1971 H 33, 1971.
Acrylic on canvas
Estimate:
€ 30,000 / $ 32,400
Sold:
€ 34,160 / $ 36,892

(incl. surcharge)