Hans Hartung

How should we understand a painting that is created through a paradoxical process of spontaneity and calculation? For some time Hans Hartung has given the impression that his gestural paintings are created as the immediate expression of emotions via direct actions on canvas. However, for some time, Hartung has only been “spontaneous” in his drawings. In all of his works painted up to 1960, he has based his works on drawings that he has transferred exactly and without variation onto the canvas. Now, for the first time, these drawings and paintings are being juxtaposed; we can observe Hartung as experienced graphic artist. A further highpoint is the selection of Hartung’s final paintings, in which the artists discovered a new freedom of expression. One chapter is dedicated to the photographs of Hans Hartung, rarely shown until now.