Hans Hartung | Rigueur & fulgurance

Catalogue published for the exhibition “Hans Hartung, rigueur & fulgurance” (October 18th – December 18th, 2018).

Preface by Patrick-Gilles Persin, art critic, writer and expert on modern and contemporary paintings and sculptures.

On the occasion of the opening of the Galerie A&R Fleury, Alexandre and Richard Fleury chose to organise an important exhibition of the work of the artist Hans Hartung, a key figure of modern art, at the origin of informal art. By means of fifteen canvases and exceptional papers and cardboard, this exhibition reveals the two most beautiful aspects of his technique, which he ceaselessly experimented with from the post-war years and until the end of his life: rigour and brilliance.

We chose this title because it seemed to us to succinctly describe the pictorial life of the artist.

In his early days, Hans Hartung gave the impression of instantaneous, lyrical and spontaneous gestures, but his passion for mathematics and rationality had an important place in his work. The spontaneity of his works on paper was transformed into a meticulous squaring up. This was Hartung’s means of expression on his canvases until the end of the 1950s: a process characterised by great rigour.

His free gestures became decisive from the 1960s, an important period in which the artist revealed his capacity for renewal and his need for experimentation.

The technical research undertaken by the artist with the manufacture of new tools/brushes, or following the use of new materials, vinyl and acrylic paint, consolidated Hans Hartung’s status as the master of innovation.

The Seventies represented “Le champ des Oliviers,” the property of Antibes, where the artist would develop his final artistic research implemented during the 60s: sprays and projections.