
"SIMON HANTAI (1922-2008) -
The Centenary Exhibition
IN TOWN - In TOWN
Simon Hantaï would be 100 years old, 100 years of fullness, 100 years of solitude?
Radical, Hantaï renounces composition, all representation and all subjectivity and goes as far as possible on the side of the involuntary.
The canvas is folded and bound more or less tightly, then painted blind.
The colors are fixed where the surface is accessible and the final work is only revealed once unfolded. The process reduces the part of the painter to very little, who only remains in control of the chromatism, the density of the material and the formats.
In fact it is inspired by the "tie and dye" technique literally "tie and dip" used in West Africa for centuries
and to which he added painting, scratching, repainting, folding..
He strips the painting of its symbolic and psychological meanings as well as the uses of the trade in order to retain only the purest materiality. Hantaï describes his paintings as "rags".

Marian women, 1960-1968

Meuns, 1967-1968


Studies, 1968-1971









Pink writing, 1958-1959










Whites, 1973-1975



Catamurons, 1964-1967















Tabulas, 1972-1982



Bellies, 1964-1967



Left, 1994-1995

COMMISSIONER
Curator, catalog director: Anne Baldassari