Simon Hantaï

o e u v r e The Folding Method

1960-1995

Paul Rodgers/9W Gallery 5 2 9 We s t 2 0 t h S t r e e t , 9 t h F l o o r , N e w Yo r k , N Y 1 0 0 1 1 - t e l : 2 1 2 . 4 1 4 . 9 8 1 0

www.paulrodgers9w.com

mailto:CjCarmichaelBraun@gmail.com

Cloaks 1960-1962

Meuns 1967-1968

Studies 1969-1971

Watercolors 1971-1973

Whites 1973-1974

1st - Tabulas 1974-1976

2nd - Tabulas 1980-1982

Leftovers 1981-1995

Cloak (M.A. 3), 1960, oil on canvas, 108.3 x 77.3 in. / 275.1 x 196.3 cm Musée d’art moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris

Blue Meun, 1967, oil on canvas, 96.5 x 87 in. / 245.1 x 221 cm Private Collection

Study, 1969, oil on canvas, 101.9 x 88.6 in. / 258.8 x 225 cm Musée d’art moderne de la ville Paris, Paris

Untitled, 1971, watercolor on canvas, (22.4 x 17.3 in. / 57 x 44 cm)Private Collection

White, 1973, oil on canvas, 92 x 92 in. / 233.7 x 233.7 cm Private Collection

Tabula, 1974, oil on acrylic on canvas, 110.7 x 211.8 in. / 281.2 x 538 cm Musée d’art moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris

Tabula, 1980, acrylic on canvas, 112.4 x 178.9 in. / 285.6 x 454.5 cm. Musée d’art moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris

Leftover, 1981, acrylic on canvas, 80.8 x 68.3 in. / 205.2 x 173.5 cm Private Collection

Simon Hantaï (1922-1908) was an artist of legendary reclusion. He nevertheless holds almost mythical status in the French art world and a

major position in the Pompidou Center’s account of post-World War Two art.

As commentators over the years have pointed out, beginning with André Breton, Hantaï was a fiercely independent artist, motivated above all by an ethical reflection

on art. Throughout his career he insisted on the aesthetic primacy of art over its commercialization. This defense of art’s integrity obliged Hantaï to live in self-imposed

isolation yet he saw his work as deeply engaged with the world.

Hantaï explored the aesthetic of Abstract Expressionism with original, major work in the 1960’s, when the consensus was that it would be impossible to

make significant painting after Pollock. He also refuted the ‘formalist’ criticism of abstract painting, insisting instead that art must contain vital intellectual content.

The technique of painting that he invented, called ‘the folding method’, pointed the way towards the ‘Process’ aesthetic of 1970’s art, thus allowing Hantaï’s thinking to

encounter and make common cause with that of American avant-garde land artist and theorist Robert Smithson.

Hantaï exhibited regularly in Paris with his long-time dealer Jean Fournier, first at the Galérie Kléber, and then at the Galérie Jean Fournier. Hantaï also had

numerous museum exhibitions in France, notably his mid-career survey at the Musée d’art moderne, that would later become the Centre Georges Pompidou.

Hantaï represented France at the Venice Biennial in 1982.

The Centre Georges Pompidou is the largest repository of Hantaï’s work with over thirty major paintings. In 1988, the artist made a donation of five additional

paintings to the Musée d’art moderne de le ville de Paris which occasioned an exhibition with a catalogue. The following year Hantaï agreed to show his late work titled,

‘The Leftovers,’ at a private art foundation in Paris. The same year he also showed a selection of works spanning the folding method, 1960-1995, with a catalogue, at the

Westfalisches Landesmuseum in Münster, Germany, carefully overseen by the artist.

After this last show, Hantaï returned to his life of seclusion and maintained public silence until his death. His last years were partly occupied by a joint endeavor

with the leading French philosophers of the day, first Gilles Deleuze, and later Jaques Derrida and Jean-Luc Nancy with whom he published a book,

La connaissance des textes, which serves as a postscript to his oeuvre.

- Paul Rodgers

For more information about Simon Hantaï’s life and work, please contact

Paul Rodgers/9W Gallery 5 2 9 We s t 2 0 t h S t r e e t , 9 t h F l o o r , N e w Yo r k , N Y 1 0 0 1 1 - t e l : 2 1 2 . 4 1 4 . 9 8 1 0

www.paulrodgers9w.com