Modern & Contemporary Art 
20 October 2022
Modern & Contemporary Art 
121

Hans Hartung 1904–1989

P1960-337

1960
pastel and scraping on baryte cardboard 25⅛ h × 19¼ w in (64 × 49 cm)
estimate: $20,000–30,000
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Signed and dated to lower left ‘Hartung 60’. This work is registered in the archives of the Fondation Hartung Bergman, and will be included in the forthcoming catalogue raisonné of Hans Hartung currently being prepared by Fondation Hartung Bergman. Sold with a certificate of authenticity from the Fondation Hartung Bergman.
provenance: Private Collection | Thence by descent | Los Angeles Modern Auctions, Modern Art & Design, 25 February 2018, Lot 15 | Private Collection, Los Angeles

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A major figure of both the Art Informel and Tachisme movements, German-French painter Hans Hartung began experimenting with abstraction at the age of 17. Early exposure to Cubism and other burgeoning modernist styles of the era inspired the young Hartung to move from his native Leipzig to Paris, where he began to develop his own artistic vision incorporating patches of black and color to bring spontaneity and chance to the canvas. Gestural and unrestrained, Hartung’s work was labeled “degenerate” by the Nazi party, and today he is recognized as a significant forerunner to the wave of Lyrical Abstraction among American artists of the sixties and seventies.

The first and most important thing is to remain free, free in each line you undertake, in your ideas and in your political action, in your moral conduct ... The artist especially must remain free from all outer restraints.

Hans Hartung

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