Born in Leipzig, Germany in 1904 and died in 1989 in Antibes.
Hans Hartung is associated with post-war Art Informel artists such as Karel Appel, Jean-Paul Riopelle, and Jean Dubuffet. After being a prisoner of war and losing a leg as a soldier with the Foreign Legion (between 1939 and 1945), Hartung returned to Paris, where he became particularly interested in spontaneity, irrationality, and freedom of form. Rather than trying to control the process as earlier abstract painters had, Hartung applied paint with garden rakes, spray paint, and olive branches, embracing accidental and unexpected outcomes.
"In my opinion the painting which is called abstract is none of the 'Isms' of which there have been so many lately," he said. "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." Notable influences include Emil Nolde, Oskar Kokoschka, and other German expressionists.
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2018
- Simon Lee Gallery, London, Hans Hartung
- Perrotin, New York, HANS HARTUNG "A CONSTANT STORM. WORKS FROM 1922 TO 1989"
- Nahmad Contemporary, New York, HANS HARTUNG
- de Sarthe Gallery, Hong Kong, Hans Hartung (1904-1989) Abstraction: A Human Language
2017
- de Sarthe Gallery, Hong Kong, Hans Hartung (1904-1989) Abstraction: A Human Language
- 10 Hanover, London, Current stock
- Ludorff, Duesseldorf, Recent Acquisitions Fall 2017
- Dellupi Arte, Milano, Hans Hartung, gli anni '60
PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
- National Gallery of Australia
- The Art Institute of Chicago
- Hirshhorn Museum and Art Garden
- Museum of Modern Art, New York
- Canton Museum of Art, Ohio
- Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio
- De Young, San Francisco
- Fogg Museum
- Busch-Reisinger Museum
- Arthur M. Sackler Museum
- Philadelphia Museum of Art
- The Courtauld Institute, London
- Museo Tamayo Arte Contemporaneo
- Haifa Museum, Israel
- GAM, Turin
- Reina Sofia, Madrid
- Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium
- Tate Collection
- Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
