A German youth, a French war
Hans Hartung was born in Leipzig, studied philosophy and art history, then painting in Dresden and Leipzig. Very early on, he scratched, stained, abstract. The arrival of Nazism pushed him towards Paris. He joined the Foreign Legion, was wounded and had his leg amputated. Naturalized French after the war, he became one of the pillars of Parisian abstraction, Prix de Venise in 1960.
Claw to Tool
First ink scratches and dark oils, Hartung then invents a real orchestra of tools: brushes, scyllas, pistols, combs, branches. The paintings of the years 1960-1980, often titled with a letter and an number (T 1962-E3), are fields of energy. He settled down in Antibes, in a villa-workshop designed with Anna-Eva Bergman, which became a foundation.
A classic gesture
Hartung died in 1989. His influence on Schneider, Soulanges, European gestural painting is immense. Less « exclusive black » than Marfaing, more graphic than Debré, he made of the sign a measured storm.
