Hans Hartung - Contemporary Art Day Sale London Sunday, June 29, 2008 | Phillips

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  • Provenance

    Philippe Dotremont collection, Brussels; Private Collection, Paris

  • Exhibited

    Amsterdam, Stedelijk Museum, Collection Philippe Dotremont, 1954; New York, The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Collection Philippe Dotremont, 1959

  • Literature

    U. Appollonio, Hans Hartung, Milan 1966, no. 119 (illustrated)

  • Catalogue Essay

    Hardly any other German artist is as representative of the idea of “abstraction as a universal language,” a significant cross-cultural phenomenon developed in the 1950s. Hartung referred to abstract art as “another human language even more direct than early painting.” The artist was inspired not only by the Classical Modern, whose proponents he had met in Paris in the 1930s, but also by Chinese ink painting, which is reflected in the calligraphic lightness of his works. As one of the leaders of the Art Informel movement, Hartung had a significant influence on post-war German art. He accordingly titled his painting in an unambiguous and practical fashion, scrupulously bare of extraneous references. T-1952-3 for example, is titled to announce the medium ('T' standing for Toile, implying oil on canvas), the year it was made, 1954, and the order in which it was painted that year.
    (Taken from Abstraction as Language – Hans Hartung Retrospective in www.deutsche-bank-stiftung.de)

346

T 1952-3

1952
Oil on canvas.
97 x 130 cm. (38 1/4 x 51 1/8 in).
Signed and dated lower right 'Hartung 52'. This work is accompanied by a certificate of authenticity.

Estimate
£200,000 - 300,000 

Contemporary Art Day Sale

30 June 2008, 10am & 2pm
London