Kandinsky, Hartung, and Soulages—Pioneers of Abstract Painting
“Hans Hartung, European Pioneer of Abstract Painting, Dies at 85,” read the headline in The New York Times when Hartung died in 1989. Hans Hartung is one of the few German artists of his generation who, after only a few sporadic figurative experiments, devoted himself consistently to abstraction from the very beginning. A lecture by Wassily Kandinsky, which the Leipzig-born artist attended during his student years in 1925, proved pivotal. Hartung made the bold decision to work exclusively in abstract art as early as the early 1930s. After moving to the art capital of Paris in 1935, he continued to develop his style in close collaboration with the leading figures of the Parisian avant-garde, before ultimately becoming—alongside Pierre Soulages—one of the pioneers of European Informel art in the late 1940s.


Much like Kandinsky—with whom Hartung maintained a personal relationship in the 1930s—Hartung's work closely intertwines painting and music. In his younger years, Hartung was an enthusiastic pianist and dancer and cultivated an almost obsessive relationship with music, his interests ranging from classical music and jazz to electronic music. In a 1948 letter from Pierre Soulages, a friend of Hartung's since the late 1940s, he reports: "His radio is always on—when he visits me, he can't resist playing his favorite records. […] Even moments of rest and, above all, of work were almost unbearable for him without music.” Unlike Kandinsky, however, painting and music are not linked in Hartung’s work through a theoretical-programmatic approach; rather—since Hartung almost always listened to music while drawing and painting—they form a strikingly direct and immediate connection on the canvas: From dynamism and rhythm, Hartung develops unmistakable harmonies of color and form, brimming with energy. Our early composition “T 1947-27”, created just two years after the end of the war and exhibited at the XXIV. Biennale di Venezia in 1948 — a seminal event for the postwar avant-garde — is also distinguished by its progressive gestural style, its dominant use of black lines and layering, and various painterly techniques that would become defining features of Hartung’s oeuvre.


“T 1947-27” – A Perfect Illusion of Spontaneous Drawing and Dynamism
This composition appears as if it were rendered onto the canvas with playful ease and an almost dance-like gesture. The lines and forms against a turquoise backdrop feel highly dynamic while still retaining a dreamy, ethereal character. Hartung brought the delicate, swirling line structures and the masterfully applied color fields—ranging from luminous pastel yellow through orange to earthy brown—into a fascinating harmony and balance. The staged weightlessness vaguely recalls the famous mobiles of Alexander Calder, whom Hartung met in the late 1930s when he was part of the Parisian avant-garde. In our early and seminal composition “T1947-27”—formerly part of Peggy Guggenheim’s legendary collection in Venice—Hartung unites seemingly contradictory elements, blending density and transparency in a painterly manner. The various floating forms, which, in the fascinating immediacy of their expression, resemble a painted drawing, overlap in many ways; at the same time, they offer a glimpse into the infinity of ethereal realms. “T1947-27” is a particularly striking example of Hartung’s mastery in translating the unique immediacy and dynamism of drawing into painting. However, knowledge of Hartung’s approach to his work from the 1940s through the 1960s only adds to the fascination with this masterfully perfected illusion of spontaneity and dynamism: For up until 1960, Hartung’s compositions were based on precise preparatory drawings, some of which were transferred to large formats using the method of quadrature.


“T 1947-27” – An early key work of European Informel Art
However, Hartung wanted to preserve the expressive quality of the hand-drawn line and the immediate creative energy captured in drawing. He had already come very close to his artistic goal in his wonderful and rare compositions from the 1940s, which celebrate the gestural energy of the line. This characteristic feature would be of key distinction in European Informel art over the next two decades. Informel painting is based on free gesture as a direct expression of the unconscious, which is transcribed onto the canvas in the tradition of Surrealist “écriture automatique.” “T1947-27” is an outstanding early example of this and is therefore regarded—along with the compositions created around the same time, most of which are now held in major international collections, including the Museum of Modern Art and the Metropolitan Museum in New York—as a seminal work that paved the way for European Informel painting.
As early as 1956, Hartung’s exceptional artistic achievement earned the Guggenheim International Award from the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation. Twelve years after this composition was exhibited in Venice, Hartung received the Grand International Prize for Painting at the Biennale di Venezia in 1960. Hartung’s first solo exhibition in the United States followed with a show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York in 1975. Today, his works are part of major museum collections worldwide. [JS]