HANS HARTUNG

Hans Hartung achieved international recognition as a seminal figure of Art Informel, which arose in France during the Second World War. Besides the apparent spontaneity of his distinctively bold and almost calligraphic gestural abstraction, rationalism equally informed his style out of an early interest in the relationship between aesthetics and mathematics, particularly the harmony of the golden ratio, but also out of necessity: he used to meticulously square up his successful abstract sketches in order to reproduce them onto larger canvases, which he couldn’t afford to risk losing to improvisation. The Grand International Prize for painting, which he won at the 1960 Venice Biennale, marked a decisive turn in his practice. He began improvising directly onto canvas and experimenting with new mediums, namely fast-drying acrylic and vinyl paints, as well as scraping and spraying techniques. The quest for a balance between spontaneity and perfection remained at the core of Hans Hartung’s painterly aesthetics until the end of his life, in 1989.