‘In 1989 [Hans Hartung] produced 360 mostly large-scale paintings owing to the utilization of a new painting tool. His assistant, Alkis Voliotis, had several years previously purchased some garden sprayers used for fertilizing and spreading insecticide. More variable in application, and with a lightweight canister, the sulfateuse had a long hose attached to a wand, with a nozzle that could be adjusted at intervals between fine spray and loose spurt.
[…] Hartung had been confined to a wheelchair for several years. With the new sprayers he could now make movements across large formats by simply moving his arm or his wrist. The various properties of the sulfateuse repeatedly engaged him. He continually innovated. For the first time in anyone’s memory he wanted to paint in daylight. He often produced canvases at such a rate that the floor would be covered with drying stretched canvases…’
J. Fyfe, ‘An Apotheosis’, in Hans Hartung: The Last Paintings 1989, exh. cat., New York: Cheim & Reid, 2010, n.p.
‘True to his belief that instinctive gestures afforded infinite possibilities for visual expression, he went on to explore new techniques for applying paint — striking the canvas violently, for example, with brushes made of branches, or using spray guns with which to trace in magnified form the whiplash movements of his wrists. His comment, “What I like is to be in action on the canvas”, became fully justified in the second phase of his career.’
J. Mundy, Hans Hartung. Works on Paper 1922–56, exh. cat., Tate Gallery, London; London: Tate Gallery Publishing, 1996, p. 48
‘Hartung revealed himself, not nature or space. It is us who search for references, themes or visual concepts. All Hartung’s work was based on three principles: energy, speed and light.’
A. Barzel, ‘The Universe’, in Hans Hartung: In the beginning was lightning, Antibes: Hartung Fondation, 2007, p. 54
‘Underlying his painting is the passion for astronomy, in particular the bolts of lightning that influenced his artistic development and method of painting. He drew them at the moment they appeared, filling entire sketchbooks (his Blitzbücher) with zigzags and broken lines, sketched with furious speed to seize their force and instantaneity. These are tell-tale signs of a complexity that Hartung harboured within himself, which can only be understood by examining his signs, not so much their final result but the process of their becoming. As Hartung himself said, “The flashes of lightning gave me a sense of speed in drawing lines.”’
A. Barzel, ‘The Universe’, in Hans Hartung: In the beginning was lightning, Antibes: Hartung Fondation, 2007, p. 54
‘Throughout his career, Hartung has never stopped reinventing himself, multiplying creative processes, making his tools an extension of his body. The gesture, the movement, its physical relationship to the canvas and to the material are felt as soon as we lay our eyes on one of his canvases. To look at his work is to have a sensitive experience that involves the whole body. This feeling is accentuated from the 1960s, a period that marks a turning point in his production.
[…] Hartung improvises, accepts erasures, accidents, which, according to him, give “more life” to the painting. On large formats, the forms spring out in the explosions of vanishing spots, sprays of light, spontaneous angry strokes, cosmic signs and unlimited spaces.’
D. Bétard, ‘Une peinture vertigineuse et hypnotique’, in Hans Hartung: La Fabrique du Geste, exh. cat., Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris; Paris: Beaux Arts & Cie, 2019, p. 24
‘When in the 1960s he applied vinyl paint to his canvases with new tools and compressed air, he said, “Finally I came out of the darkness of the black years.” He began to hunt for light beneath the vinyl surface by scratching energetically on the coloured grounds.’
A. Barzel, ‘The Universe’, in Hans Hartung: In the beginning was lightning, Antibes: Hartung Fondation, 2007, p. 54
‘After the six years of World War II, Hartung returned to painting in 1945. He rose to prominence as the chief progenitor of Art Informel and had the first of many museum exhibitions.’
J. Fyfe, ‘An Apotheosis’, in Hans Hartung: The Last Paintings 1989, exh. cat., New York: Cheim & Reid, 2010, n.p.