Hans Hartung

Hans Hartung (1904-1989), a French painter of German origin, was passionate about astronomy, photography and drawing from a young age. The study of the old masters, particularly Rembrandt, reinforced his desire to become a painter. From 1922, Hartung turned towards tachist abstraction, producing a series of ink drawings. From 1924, he immersed himself in studies of philosophy and art history, while enrolling at the School of Fine Arts in Leipzig, then Dresden. The discovery of the work of Wassily Kandinsky in 1925 profoundly influenced his artistic research, encouraging him to continue his exploration of abstraction. In 1926, a decisive encounter with modern French painting at the International Exhibition in Dresden pushed him to settle in Paris. There, he frequented the studios of André Lhote and Fernand Léger, before returning to Dresden where he presented his first exhibition. However, Hitler's rise to power in 1935 forced him to leave Germany and return to France. In the 1930s, influenced by the work of Joan Miró, Hartung began to experiment with spots of color, free lines and abstract forms, in which black played an important role. This period marked the formation of the visual vocabulary that would characterize his entire work.