HANS HARTUNG
Through modes of gestural intuition, craft and material command, the work of the German-French artist Hans Hartung (1904–1989) is distinguished by a pure painterly energy. A leading figure of Art Informel, Hartung combined material precision with notions of impulse, resulting in works characterised by a refined intensity. Known for his continuous innovation throughout his nearly seven-decade long career, the artist experimented with a range of tools spanning from tree branches to spray guns. With all of the breakthroughs that he made, Hartung leaves behind an artistic legacy with a lasting impact, and an extensive body of work which embodies the dynamism that predicated his life and work.
‘Everything that exists in the world is connected with everything else, in the same way that all Hartung’s lines and marks on paper and canvas are connected by the signs of time.
[…] Hartung rejected every canon that lay outside his gaze, which, ranging beyond every visual horizon, had turned in on himself, to the depths of his feeling and understanding, which offered him the only possibility of producing unique and original work.’
A. Barzel, Hans Hartung: In the beginning was lightning, Antibes: Hartung Fondation, 2007
Image: T1962-U8, 1962, 180 x 142 cm.; 70 7/8 x 55 7/8 in., © Hans Hartung. Photo: courtesy of Fondation Hartung-Bergman & Perrotin
Selected Works
Solo Exhibitions
Group Exhibitions
Selected Institutional Exhibitions
Biography
VITA
1904
Born in Leipzig, Germany
1956
Guggenheim International Award, New York
1957
Rubens Prize of Siegen, Rathaus
1960
International Grand Prize for Painting, Venice Biennale
1989
Died in Antibes, France
SELECTED PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo
Art Institute of Chicago
Artizon Art Museum, Ishibashi Foundation, Tokyo
Courtauld Gallery, London
Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Rome
Hammer Museum, Los Angeles
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C.
The Israel Museum, Jerusalem
Kunstmuseum Basel
Ludwig Museum, Cologne
Musée des Beaux-Arts, Rennes
Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris
Musée de Strasbourg
Musée National d'Art Moderne, Centre Pompidou, Paris
Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid
Museum Folkwang, Essen
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York
Nasjonalmuseet, Oslo
National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.
Ōhara Museum of Art, Kurashiki
The Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice
The Philadelphia Museum of Art
Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York
Tate Gallery, London
Toyama Prefectural Museum of Art & Design
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2023
Cosmic Trip: Hartung & Bergman entre Rêve et Sciences (duo show with Anna-Eva Bergman)
Fondation Hartung-Bergman, Antibes
Revenge
Perrotin, New York
2022
Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin
Perrotin, Tokyo
Painter. Photographer
Waddington Custot, London
2021
Hartung 80
Perrotin, Paris
Rothko - Hartung, A Multiform Friendship
Perrotin, Paris
2019
Retrospective: La fabrique du geste
Musée d'Art Moderne de Paris
Perrotin, Shanghai
2018
A Constant Storm
Perrotin, New York
Nahmad Contemporary, New York
Simon Lee, London
Kunstmuseum Bonn
2017
Polittici
Galleria Nazionale dell'Umbria, Perugia
2016
Hartung et les peintres lyriques
Fondation Leclerc, Landerneau
Beau Geste: Hans Hartung, Painter and Legionnaire
Museum of the Foreign Legion and Art Center Les Pénitents Noirs, Aubagne
Hans Hartung and Photography
Museum of Contemporary Art, Siegen (catalogue)
2014
L'Atelier du Geste
Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil, São Paulo
2013
The Roots of Signs: Graphic Works
Roma Istituto Nazionale per la Grafica, Palazzo Polo, Rome
2011
Hartung: Prints
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Vannes, Vannes
Boeing 70
Villa Giulia, Verbania
Hartung: Prints
Musée d'Art et d'Histoire, Geneva
2010
Prints
Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris (catalogue)
The last paintings
Cheim & Read, New York
2008
The Gesture and the Method
Fondation Maeght, Saint-Paul-de-Vence
Essential
Circulo de Bellas Artes, Madrid
Spontanes Kalkül
Kunsthalle zu Kiel, Kiel
2007
Spontaneous Calculus, Pictures, Photographs, Film 1922-1989
Musée des Beaux-Arts, Leipzig
2005
Hartung in China
National Art Museum of China, Beijing
National Museum, Nanjing
2004
Conceptualism Before the Letter
Gemeentemuseum, The Hague
So beschwor ich den Blitz
Museum Ludwig, Cologne
2003
Hans Hartung
Musée d'Art et d'Histoire, Belfort
Musée du Château des Ducs de Wurtemberg, Montbéliard
2000
Galleria d'Arte Moderna, Turin
1998
Aichi Prefectural Museum of Art, Nagoya
1996
Works on Paper, 1922–1956
Tate Britain, London
Hartung, Modern Painter
Le Capitou – Centre d'Art Contemporain, Frejus
1992
Extreme Artworks 1922–1989
Musée de Montbéliard, Montbéliard
Villa Franck, Ludwigsburg
1989
First Abstract Research, 1922–1938
Musée Unterlinden, Colmar
1988
Art Point Gallery, Tokyo
Recent Works, 1986–1987–1988
Musée des Beaux-Arts, Carcassonne
Galleria Civica d'Arte Moderna, Ferrara
1987
First Paintings, 1922–1949
Musée Picasso, Antibes
1981
Paintings, Drawing, Photography
Städtische Kunsthalle, Düsseldorf
Staatsgalerie Moderner Kunst, Munich
1980
Hartung: Works from 1922–1939
Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville, Paris
1979
Paintings and Works on Paper 1976–1977
Galerie de France, Paris
Musée Picasso, Antibes
1977
Musée National d'Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris
1975
Paintings 1971–1975
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
1974
Works from Five Decades
Wallraf-Richartz-Museum, Cologne
Nationalgalerie Berlin, Berlin
Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich
Hans Hartung: 1971–1974
Galerie de France, Paris
1972
Städtische Galerie Haus Seel, Siegen
1971
Hans Hartung: 1971
Galerie de France, Paris
Hartung: Large Formats 1961–1971
Fondation Maeght, Saint-Paul-de-Vence
1969
Pictures, Pastels, Graphics
Kunstverein Braunschweig
Hans Hartung
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
Musée du Québec, Quebec
Musée d'Art Contemporain, Montreal
1968
A Retrospective Exhibition of Paintings and Drawings
City of Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, Birmingham
Musée National d'Art Moderne, Paris
1966
Galleria Civica d'Arte Moderna, Turin
1963
Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam
Museum des 20. Jahrhunderts, Vienna
Kunsthaus Zürich
Kunstverein für die Rheinlande und Westfalen, Düsseldorf
1962
Fifty New Yorks by Hans Hartung
Galerie de France, Paris
1961
Oeuvres de 1920–1939
Galerie de France, Paris
1960
Galerie de France, Paris
1959
Pastels 1958
Kleemann Galleries, New York
Hans Hartung: Rubens Prize of Siegen
Rathaus, Siegen
1957
Hans Hartung
Kestner-Gesellschaft, Hanover
Württembergische Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart
Haus am Waldsee, Berlin
Kunsthalle Hamburg
Kölnischer Kunstverein, Cologne
Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nuremberg
Paintings
Kleemann Galleries, New York
1949
Abstractions
The Hanover Gallery, London
1947
Galerie Lydia Conti, Paris
1931
Kunstausstellung Kühl, Dresden
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2025
Vertigo. Natural phenomena and abstraction from 1950 to the present day
Fondation Carmignac, Hyères
Out of focus, another vision of art from 1945 to the present day
Musée de l’Orangerie, Paris, will travel to:
CaixaForum Madrid (2025–2026);
CaixaForum Barcelona (2026)
2024
Instinctive Gestures
Galerie Max Hetzler, London
The Code Factory
Works from the Eighties and Nineties
Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin
2023
L’Art informel: le Signe et le Geste – 1950–1970
Opera Gallery, Paris
Modern & Contemporary
Waddington Custot, London
La Llum Del Nord. Hans Hartung, Anna–Eva Bergman
Ca n’Oliver. Centre d’Art I Història Hernández Sanz, Maó
Salon Perrotin Matignon
Perrotin, Paris
Among Friends
Museum of Fine Arts, Ghent
The Hainel Collection: The own way
MKM Museum Küppersmühle of Modern Art, Duisburg
Extreme Tension: Art Between Politics And Society 1945–1990
Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin
Rêveries: Thirteen French Post-war Artists
Studio Gariboldi, Milan
2022
The Shape of Freedom. International Abstraction after 1945
Museum Barberini, Potsdam
2020
Degree Zero: Drawing at Midcentury, organised by Samantha Friedman
The Museum of Modern Art, New York
Wonderland
Perrotin, Shanghai
2019
New Worlds
Museum Folkwang, Essen
2016
Entre deux horizons. Avant-gardes allemandes et françaises du Saarlandmuseum
Centre Pompidou-Metz, Metz
2015
Sprayed
Gagosian Gallery, London
Sensations de Nature: De Courbet à Hartung
Musée Courbet, Ornans
2014
L’Art Informel à Paris: Hans Hartung, Lee Ungno, Zao Wou-Ki, Pierre Soulages
Lee Ungno Museum, Daejeon
Les désastres de la guerre 1800–2014
Louvre-Lens Museum, Lens
Face à l’oeuvre
Fondation Maeght, Saint-Paul-de-Vence
2013
Hantaï, Hartung, Soulages, Tàpies
Timothy Taylor Gallery, London
Noirs d’encre. Regards croisés
Baur Fondation, Geneva
At the Nexus of Painting and Writing
Seoul Arts Centre, Seoul
I went
Musée Guimet, Paris
2012
Dialogue Kirili-Hartung
Musée Picasso, Antibes
2011
Painterly Abstraction: 1949–1969. Selections from the Guggenheim Collections
Guggenheim Bilbao, Bilbao
Regard sur l’abstraction lyrique
Musée des Beaux Arts de Carcassonne, Carcassonne
La couleur en avant
Musée d’Art Moderne et d’Art Contemporain, Nice
La peinture autrement
Musée Fernand Léger, Biot
2010
On the Esprit of Gestures – Hans Hartung, Art Informel and the Consequences
Kupferstichkabinett, Berlin (catalogue)
2009
Deadline: Martin Kippenberger, Absalon, Hans Hartung, James Lee Byars, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Joan Mitchell, Robert Mapplethorpe, Chen Zhen, Gilles Aillaud, Willem de Kooning, Hannah Villiger, Jörg lmmendorff
Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris
L'attraction de l'espace
Musée d'Art Moderne, Saint Etienne
2008
Action Painting
Fondation Beyeler, Basel
2007
Gestes, signes, traces, espaces
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Caen
Homenaje a Picasso
MNBA - Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes Santiago Chile
Be-Bomb : the Transatlantic War of Images and all that jazz. 1946–1956
Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona
Figura Humana y Abstraccion
Museo Würth La Rioja, Agoncillo
Motivated by inner conviction. Artistic revival after the First World War in the southern Rhine Province
Mittelrhein Museum, Koblenz
Face à Face
Fondation Fernet Branca, Saint-Louis
The Art of Collecting
Museum Kunstpalast, Düsseldorf
Speed #2, IVAM
Valencian Institute of Modern Art, Valencia
Speed #1, IVAM
Valencian Institute of Modern Art, Valencia
Gestes, Signes, Traces, Espaces
Musée d'Art Moderne André Malraux, Le Havre
German Stories
Museum of Contemporary Art, GfZK, Leipzig
2006
The faces behind the making
The Columns, Seoul
Le noir est une couleur. Hommage vivant à Aimé Maeght
Fondation Maeght, Saint-Paul-de-Vence
Mirada múltiple
Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao
Da Monet a Boltanski
Fondazione Magnani Rocca, Parma
2005
Informal - Jean Dubuffet e l'arte europea 1945–1970
Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Modena
Writing, drawing, gesture. Carl Friedrich Claus in the context of clover by Pollock
Art Collections Chemnitz
Enigmatic? Informal Printmaking Yesterday and Today - Collection Hartmann
Kunstverein Speyer, Kulturhof Flachsgasse
Austrian Contemporary Art and Postwar Painting
Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Monterrey
2004
The Unknown Masterpiece
Städtische Galerie Neunkirchen
Africa - Beauty and Disaster
Galerie Beyeler, Basel
The Unknown Masterpiece
Kunstverein Potsdam
Moi ! Autoportraits au XXème siècle
Musée du Luxembourg, Paris
Jean Tardieu, lire la peinture, voir la poésie
Musée des Beaux-Arts, Caen
2003
Tendenzen der abstrakten Kunst nach 1945
Stiftung Kunst und Recht, Tübingen
Abstract Expressionism - Art Movement in the 20th Century
Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, Tehran
2002
Hommage à François Pluchart
FRAC - Bourgogne, Dijon
2001
Chantiers / Publics, Esquisse d'un musée
Musée Fabre, Montpellier
From Kandinsky to Pollock
Museo Cantonale d'Arte, Lugano
2000
Times are changing - On the way! From the 20th century!
Kunsthalle Bremen
Abstract Art
National Museum of Art and Design in Nuremberg
1998
Secession, a century of artistic freedom
Secession, Vienna
L'Ecole de Paris 1945–1964
Musée National d'Histoire et d'Art, Luxembourg
1997
Du ciel à la terre
Musée Ingres, Montauban
Made in France 1947–1997
Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris
Abstractions France 1940–1965
Musée d'Unterlinden, Colmar
1996
1946, l'art de la reconstruction
Musée Picasso, Antibes
1995
Les figures de la liberté
Musée Rath, Geneva
Passions privées
Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris
1993
Copier créer
Musée du Louvre, Paris
Une histoire parallèle 1960–1990
Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris
1989
L'Europe des grands maîtres 1870–1970
Musée Jacquemart-André, Paris
1987
Le cadre et le socle dans l'art du 20ème siècle
Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris
1986
1900-1945: Künstler in Deutschland
Württembergischer Kunstverein, Stuttgart
Zen 49
Staatliche Kunsthalle, Baden-Baden
Un Musée éphémère
Fondation Maeght, Saint-Paul-de-Vence
1985
Le Parlement des idoles
Villa Arson, Nice
Action et émotion, peintures des années 50
National Museum of Art, Osaka
Peintures et Tapisseries
Musée Picasso, Antibes
1980
Dessins de la Fondation Maeght
Fondation Maeght, Saint-Paul-de-Vence
Arte contemporanea da Comunidade Europeia
Museum of Modern Art, Rio de Janeiro
Paris, Paris, 1937–1957
Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris
1979
L'art dans les années trente en France
Musée d'Art et d'Industrie, Saint Etienne
Escola de Paris
Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon
1978
Ecole de Paris
Palazzo Reale, Milan
1977
Kunst was ist das?
Kunsthalle Hamburg
Die dreissiger Jahre
Haus der Kunst, Munich
Paris - New York
Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris
1976
Freunde danken Werner Haftmann
Nationalgalerie, Berlin
1975
San Lazzaro et ses amis
Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris
1974
Zeitgenössische Kunst aus den Niederlanden
Kunsthalle Nuremberg
1973
Art in Germany 1898–1973
Hamburger Kunsthalle
1972
Panorama de l'art français 1935–1965
Pinacothèque Nationale, Athens
L'Eau éblouie, tapisseries, peintures
Maison Carrée, Nîmes
1971
25 ans de peinture d'art moderne
National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul
1970
Hommage à Christian et Yvonne Zervos
Galeries du Grand Palais, Paris
1969
Three trends in contemporary French art
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Contemporary Art Dialogue between the east and the west
The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo
Hartung, Tàpies, Johns, Hoza: The VIII International Graphics Exhibition in Ljubljana
National Gallery, Prague
1968
De Bourdelle à Vic Gentils
Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels
1967
Tendances de la peinture française
Kunsthaus, Hamburg
Dix ans d'art vivant 1955–1965
Fondation Maeght, Saint-Paul-de-Vence
Deutsche Handzeichnungen und Aquarelle
Kunstverein, Hanover
40 ans d'art vivant hommage à Robert Giron
Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels
Peintres européens d'aujourd'hui
Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris
Bilan de l'art vivant 1965–1968
Fondation Maeght, Saint-Paul-de-Vence
Collection Marguerite Arp-Hagenbach
Musée de Bâle, Basel
1966
Summer loan exhibition
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Pintura Francesca contemporanea
Museo de Arte, Lima
24 peintres français 1946–1966
Musée d'Histoire et d’Art, Luxembourg
1965
Painting without a brush
Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston
1964
Painting and Sculpture of a decade 54–64
Tate Gallery, London
1963
Art Contemporain
Grand Palais, Paris
Peinture française contemporaine
Musée de Montréal, Montreal
1962
La Collection "Sonia Henie"
Kunsthalle Basel
Abstraction lyrique et abstraction construite
Musée des Beaux-Arts, Brussels
Kunst von 1900 bis heute
Museum des 20. Jahrhunderts, Vienna
Ecole de Paris
Tate Gallery, London
1961
Moderne Malerei seit 1945, Collection Dotremont
Kunsthalle Basel
Les Revenants 1948–1961
Musée d'Antibes, France
Moltzau Collection
Kunstindustriemuseet, Oslo
De Bonnard à aujourd'hui
Haus der Kunst, Munich
1960
Modern Masters in West Coast Collections
San Francisco Museum of Art
Peinture Française d'aujourd'hui
Musée de Tel Aviv
Antagonismes
Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris
Rencontre d'Octobre
Musée des Beaux Arts, Nantes
1959
School of Paris
Walker Art Center, Minneapolis
Twenty Contemporary Painters
The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York
L'Ecole de Paris dans les collections belges
Musée National d'Art Moderne, Paris
Tachismus in Frankfurt
Musée historique, Frankfurt am Main
Peintres d'aujourd'hui
Musée de Grenoble, Grenoble
Inaugural Selection
The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York
1958
Léger - Matisse - Picasso - Miro - Laurens - Magnelli - Arp - Hartung - Jacobsen
Musée de l'Art Wallon, Liège
Orient - Occident
Musée Cernuschi, Paris
Cinquante ans d'Art Moderne
Palais des Beaux Arts, Brussels
1957
Collection Moltzau
Kunsthaus Zürich
1955
Arts 1955
Musée des Beaux-Arts, Rouen
International color exhibition 18th Biennal
The Brooklyn Museum, New York
Art in the twentieth century: commemorating
San Francisco Museum of Art, San Francisco
1954
Current trends at the school of Paris: Hartung et al
Kunsthalle Bern
Collection Philippe Dotremont
Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam
La Collection Girardin au Petit-Palais
Petit-Palais, Paris
1953
Younger European Painters
The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York
Collection Domnick
Württembergische Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart
1952
Walter Bodmer, Basel. Hans Hartung, Paris
Kunsthalle Basel
Tendances actuelles de l'Ecole de Paris
Kunsthalle Bern
Rythmes et Couleurs
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lausanne, Lausanne
1951
Hans Hartung, Fritz Winter
Das Amerika-Haus, Erlangen
Advancing French Art
Art Institute of Chicago
1950
Deutsche und Französiche Kunst
Kunsthalle Recklinghausen
1949
Peintures d'aujourd'hui
Musée de Nîmes
1947
Salon des Réalités Nouvelles
Musée des Beaux-Arts de la ville, Paris
1946
De l'avénement du Cubisme à nos jours
Musée de Tours
1940
A. E. Gallatin Collection
Museum of Living Art, New York
1938
Exhibition of 20th Century German Art
New Burlington Galleries, London
1937
Origins and Developments of Independent International Art
Musée du Jeu de Paume, Paris
1936
Recent Works by: Arp, Ferren, Giacometti, Hartung, Hélion, Kandinsky, Nelson, Paalen, Tauber-Arp
La Galerie Pierre, Paris
Publications
The Code Factory: Works from the Eighties and Nineties
Exhibition Poster
2024
€ 15.00
Hans Hartung
Exhibition Poster
2022
Out of stock
Selected Press
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung August 2022
Fonds Hélène & Edouard Leclerc Pour La Culture December 2016
Ideelart July 2016
