Hans Hartung (21 September 1904 – 7 December 1989) was a German-French painter, known for his gestural abstract style. He was also a decorated

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

veteran of the

Legion d'honneur The National Order of the Legion of Honour (french: Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur), formerly the Royal Order of the Legion of Honour ('), is the highest French order of merit, both military and civil. Established in 1802 by Napoleon B ...

Life

Hartung was born in

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as ...

, Germany into an artistic family. He developed an early appreciation of

Rembrandt Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (, ; 15 July 1606 – 4 October 1669), usually simply known as Rembrandt, was a Dutch Golden Age painter, printmaker and draughtsman. An innovative and prolific master in three media, he is generally cons ...

, German painters such as

Lovis Corinth Lovis Corinth (21 July 1858 – 17 July 1925) was a German artist and writer whose mature work as a painter and printmaker realized a synthesis of impressionism and expressionism. Corinth studied in Paris and Munich, joined the Berlin Sec ...

, and the

Expressionist Expressionism is a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Northern Europe around the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it radi ...

Oskar Kokoschka Oskar Kokoschka (1 March 1886 – 22 February 1980) was an Austrian artist, poet, playwright, and teacher best known for his intense expressionistic portraits and landscapes, as well as his theories on vision that influenced the Viennese Expres ...

and Emil Nolde. In 1924 he enrolled in Leipzig University, where he studied philosophy and art history.Alley, Ronald, "Hans Hartung", Oxford Art Online He subsequently studied at the Fine Arts academy of

Dresden Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label= Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth ...

, where he copied the paintings of the masters. The modern French and Spanish works he saw in 1926 at the Internationale Kunstausstellung in Dresden were a revelation to him, and he decided that he would leave his native country to prevent succumbing to provincialism. Consequently, after a bicycle trip through Italy, he moved to

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Si ...

. In Paris, Hartung had little contact with other artists and copied the works of old and modern masters. He visited the south of France, where the landscape inspired him to a close study of the works of Cézanne, and he developed a great interest in principles of harmony and proportion such as the

golden section In mathematics, two quantities are in the golden ratio if their ratio is the same as the ratio of their sum to the larger of the two quantities. Expressed algebraically, for quantities a and b with a > b > 0, where the Greek letter phi ...

. In 1928 he visited

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and ...

where he studied painting technique with Max Doerner. In 1929 he married the artist

Anna-Eva Bergman Anna-Eva Bergman (29 May 1909 – 24 July 1987) was a Norwegian abstract expressionist artist. She was a modernist artist and part of the School of Paris. Her abstract paintings were often inspired by nature and based on abstracted motifs. Bi ...

and established himself in the French towns of

Leucate Leucate (; oc, Leucata) is a commune in the Aude department in southern France. It lies between the Mediterranean Sea and the lagoon Étang de Leucate. Geography Leucate is on the Mediterranean coast of France. It is part of the eastern C ...

, and then in the

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...

Balearic Islands The Balearic Islands ( es, Islas Baleares ; or ca, Illes Balears ) are an archipelago in the Balearic Sea, near the eastern coast of the Iberian Peninsula. The archipelago is an autonomous community and a province of Spain; its capital is ...

, eventually settling in

Menorca Menorca or Minorca (from la, Insula Minor, , smaller island, later ''Minorica'') is one of the Balearic Islands located in the Mediterranean Sea belonging to Spain. Its name derives from its size, contrasting it with nearby Majorca. Its cap ...

. He exhibited for the first time in 1931 in Dresden. Paolo Monti - Servizio fotografico - BEIC 6363692

The death of his father in 1932 severed Hartung's last bonds with Germany. He was rejected from Nazi Germany on account of being a 'degenerate', because his painting style was associated with

Cubism Cubism is an early-20th-century avant-garde art movement that revolutionized European painting and sculpture, and inspired related movements in music, literature and architecture. In Cubist artwork, objects are analyzed, broken up and reassemble ...

– an art movement incompatible with Nazi Germany's ideals. In 1935, when he attempted to sell paintings while visiting Berlin, the police tried to arrest him. He was able to flee the country with the help of his friend

Christian Zervos Christian Zervos ( el, Χρήστος Ζερβός; Argostoli, Cefalonia, Greece, January 1, 1889 – September 12, 1970, Paris) was a Greek-French art historian, critic, collector, writer and publisher. Better known as an art critic in his own ri ...

. After he returned to Paris as a refugee, Hartung and his wife divorced, and he became depressed. His paintings were becoming more abstract and did not sell well. His friends tried to help him with his financial difficulties, and the sculptor Julio González offered him the use of his studio. In 1939 Hartung married González's daughter

Roberta ''Roberta'' is a musical from 1933 with music by Jerome Kern, and lyrics and book by Otto Harbach. The musical is based on the novel ''Gowns by Roberta'' by Alice Duer Miller. It features the songs " Yesterdays", "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes", "Let ...

. In December 1939, he became a member of the

French Foreign Legion The French Foreign Legion (french: Légion étrangère) is a corps of the French Army which comprises several specialties: infantry, cavalry, engineers, airborne troops. It was created in 1831 to allow foreign nationals into the French Army ...

. He was closely followed by the

Gestapo The (), abbreviated Gestapo (; ), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of Prussia into one orga ...

and arrested for seven months by the French police. After they learned he was a painter, he was put in a red cell in an attempt to disturb his vision. After being released he rejoined the Legion to fight in

North Africa North Africa, or Northern Africa is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region, and it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of Mauritania in ...

, losing a leg in a battle near

Belfort Belfort (; archaic german: Beffert/Beffort) is a city in the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region in Northeastern France, situated between Lyon and Strasbourg, approximately from the France–Switzerland border. It is the prefecture of the Terri ...

. He earned French citizenship in 1945, and was awarded the

Croix de Guerre The ''Croix de Guerre'' (, ''Cross of War'') is a military decoration of France. It was first created in 1915 and consists of a square-cross medal on two crossed swords, hanging from a ribbon with various degree pins. The decoration was first awa ...

. In 1947, in Paris he had his first solo exhibition. By the late 1950s, he had achieved recognition for his gestural paintings, which were nearly monochromatic and characterized by configurations of long rhythmical brushstrokes or scratches. In 1960, he was awarded the International

Grand Prix Grand Prix ( , meaning ''Grand Prize''; plural Grands Prix), is a name sometimes used for competitions or sport events, alluding to the winner receiving a prize, trophy or honour Grand Prix or grand prix may refer to: Arts and entertainment ...

for painting at the

Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale (; it, La Biennale di Venezia) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy by the Biennale Foundation. The biennale has been organised every year since 1895, which makes it the oldest of ...

. In 1957, Hans Hartung was the first painter to receive the Rubens Prize of the City of Siegen.Exhibition: Hans Hartung and the Photography (2017) https://www.mgksiegen.de/en/ausstellungen/457/hans-hartung Hartung's freewheeling abstract paintings set influential precedents for many younger American painters of the 1960s, making him an important forerunner of American

Lyrical Abstraction Lyrical abstraction is either of two related but distinct trends in Post-war Modernist painting: ''European Abstraction Lyrique'' born in Paris, the French art critic Jean José Marchand being credited with coining its name in 1947, considered ...

of the 1960s and 1970s. He was featured in the 1963 film documentary ''School of Paris: (5 Artists at Work)'' by American filmmaker Warren Forma. In 1957, Hartung and Anna-Eva Bergman remarried. He died on 7 December 1989, in

Antibes Antibes (, also , ; oc, label= Provençal, Antíbol) is a coastal city in the Alpes-Maritimes department of southeastern France, on the Côte d'Azur between Cannes and Nice. The town of Juan-les-Pins is in the commune of Antibes and the Sop ...

, France.

Notes

References

* ''La mort de Hans Hartung Le peintre, pionnier puis classique de l'" abstraction ", est mort, vendredi 8 décembre, à l'âge de quatre-vingt-cinq ans'', Le Monde. Lundi 11 décembre 1989, p. 1. accessed on October 8, 2006. *Müller-Yao, Marguerite Hui: ''Der Einfluß der Kunst der chinesischen Kalligraphie auf die westliche informelle Malerei'', Diss. Bonn, Köln 1985. *Müller-Yao, Marguerite: ''Informelle Malerei und chinesische Kalligrafie'', in: ''Informel, Begegnung und Wandel'', (hrsg von Heinz Althöfer, Schriftenreihe des Museums am Ostwall; Bd. 2), Dortmund 2002, *Rolf Wedewer: ''Die Malerei des Informel. Weltverlust und Ich-Behauptung'',

Deutscher Kunstverlag The Deutscher Kunstverlag (DKV) is an educational publishing house with offices in Berlin and Munich. The publisher specializes in books about art, cultural history, architecture, and historic preservation. History Deutscher Kunstverlag w ...

, München, 2007.

External links

Hans-Hartung.com

Hans Hartung – Britannica.com

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hartung, Hans 1904 births 1989 deaths Abstract expressionist artists Cubist artists 20th-century French painters 20th-century German male artists French male painters 20th-century German painters German male painters Modern painters Artists from Leipzig School of Paris Painters from Paris Soldiers of the French Foreign Legion Recipients of the Croix de Guerre 1939–1945 (France) French military personnel of World War II Members of the Académie des beaux-arts Art Informel and Tachisme painters French amputees Emigrants from Nazi Germany to France Knights Commander of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany Recipients of the Pour le Mérite (civil class)

Life

See also

Notes

References

External links