Hans Hartung

Leipzig, 1904 – Antibes, 1987

Born in Leipzig, Germany, in 1904, Hans Hartung developed a musical sensitivity from an early age thanks to his close family environment, a sensibility that would remain with him throughout his life. He studied at the Akademie der Schönen Künste in Leipzig from 1924 to 1926, and subsequently at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich. Hans Hartung was deeply inspired by Goya, El Greco, Kokoschka and Nolde, and conceived abstract works of remarkable originality.

In 1928, he met Anna-Eva Bergman in Paris, a young Norwegian artist who, like him, had come to France to study. They married in 1929. Hartung’s first exhibition was organised in 1931. He left Germany in 1932, travelled throughout Europe, and settled in Paris in 1935. During this period, he painted abstract watercolours and canvases.

In 1944, Hans Hartung enlisted in the French Foreign Legion; following a wound sustained during the war, his right leg was amputated. In 1945, he obtained French nationality. His art expressed his suffering and nightmares through an abstract and lyrical form of painting. He covered the surfaces of his works with whirlwinds and shading, with broad dark masses traced in Indian ink, oil or pastel. The artist believed that tachisme could only convey hopelessness and the horrors of war.

Hans Hartung received the Grand Prize at the Venice Biennale in 1950. During this period, he began working with acrylic paint on large formats, marked by brief strokes, scratches and scraped effects. He “stigmatised” his painting using brooms, combs and branches. Through his work, the artist sought to capture the dynamism and permanence of the forces that create matter, light and spirit.

In 1986, Hartung began a series of highly coloured works on wrapping paper, onto which he projected drips and flowing streaks of paint. During the final three years of his life, Hartung profoundly renewed his artistic practice in order to offer — and offer himself — a final creative period. Hans Hartung died in Antibes, France, in 1987.

During his lifetime, Hans Hartung received numerous honours and tributes. In Antibes, a museum and study centre dedicated to his work, bearing his name and open to the public, was inaugurated in 2006.