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Simon Hantaï

Simon Hantaï, Meun, 1968 Oil on canvas, 89 ¾ × 80 ⅜ inches (228 × 204.2 cm)© Archives Simon Hantaï/ADAGP, Paris

Simon Hantaï, Meun, 1968

Oil on canvas, 89 ¾ × 80 ⅜ inches (228 × 204.2 cm)
© Archives Simon Hantaï/ADAGP, Paris

Simon Hantaï, Étude, 1969 Oil and acrylic on canvas, 115 ⅞ × 178 ⅜ inches (294.2 × 453 cm)© Archives Simon Hantaï/ADAGP, Paris

Simon Hantaï, Étude, 1969

Oil and acrylic on canvas, 115 ⅞ × 178 ⅜ inches (294.2 × 453 cm)
© Archives Simon Hantaï/ADAGP, Paris

Simon Hantaï, Laissée, 1981–84 Acrylic on canvas, 87 ⅜ × 72 ⅞ inches (222 × 185 cm)© Archives Simon Hantaï/ADAGP, Paris

Simon Hantaï, Laissée, 1981–84

Acrylic on canvas, 87 ⅜ × 72 ⅞ inches (222 × 185 cm)
© Archives Simon Hantaï/ADAGP, Paris

About

Known for his kaleidoscopic abstract works, Simon Hantaï (1922–2008) originated the technique of pliage (folding), in which a canvas is crumpled and knotted, uniformly painted over, and then spread out to reveal a matrix of alternations between pigment and ground. Born in Bia, Hungary, Hantaï studied at the Budapest School of Fine Arts from 1941 to 1946. In 1948 he moved to Paris after receiving a government grant to study there; after his grant was later revoked in the wake of the escalating Sovietization of his homeland, he decided to stay. In Paris, he met André Breton in December 1952 and quickly became associated with the Parisian Surrealists, completing several fantastical animal-themed paintings before encountering the work of Jackson Pollock and breaking with the Surrealist ideologies in 1955. Pollock’s action paintings and the work of the Abstract Expressionists directly inspired Hantaï’s own turn toward monumentally scaled abstraction.

Hantaï began creating pliage paintings in 1960, conceiving of the process as a marriage between Surrealist automatism and the allover gestures of Abstract Expressionism. The technique dominated the work he made during the rest of his career, re-emerging in diverse forms—sometimes as a network of crisp creases of unpainted canvas spanning the composition, and at other times as a monochrome mass manifesting in the center of an unprimed canvas. Hantaï left Paris and moved to Meun, France, in 1966, becoming a French citizen that year. He gained increasing recognition in France throughout the 1960s and 1970s, culminating in his selection as the country’s representative at the 1982 Venice Biennale. Months later, however, he withdrew from the public eye and chose not to exhibit new works until 1998, when he ended his self-imposed retreat. In 2008 Hantaï died at his home in Paris, leaving behind a corpus of fractal-like compositions whose surfaces exist in flux between deliberate and arbitrary mark making.

Fairs, Events & Announcements

Gagosian’s booth at Art Basel 2023. Artwork, left to right: © John Currin; © Rudolf Stingel; © 2023 Estate of Pablo Picasso/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York; © 2023 The Willem de Kooning Foundation/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York; © Jonas Wood; © Anna Weyant; © Jenny Saville; © Cy Twombly Foundation. Photo: Sebastiano Pellion di Persano

Art Fair

Art Basel 2023

June 13–18, 2022, Hall 2, booth B15
Messe Basel
artbasel.com

Gagosian is pleased to participate in Art Basel 2023 with modern and contemporary works by gallery artists, as well as special entries in the Unlimited and Parcours sections of the fair.

Gagosian’s presentation in the main section of Art Basel represents the breadth and diversity of the gallery’s programming through work by artists including John Currin, Andreas Gursky, Simon Hantaï, Tetsuya Ishida, Jia Aili, Jamian Juliano-Villani, Ewa Juszkiewicz, Rick Lowe, Nathaniel Mary Quinn, Sarah Sze, Mary Weatherford, Anna Weyant, Rachel Whiteread, Stanley Whitney, and Jordan Wolfson, among others. Also featured are iconic works by Willem de Kooning, Gerhard Richter, Cy Twombly, and Andy Warhol.

Gagosian’s booth at Art Basel 2023. Artwork, left to right: © John Currin; © Rudolf Stingel; © 2023 Estate of Pablo Picasso/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York; © 2023 The Willem de Kooning Foundation/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York; © Jonas Wood; © Anna Weyant; © Jenny Saville; © Cy Twombly Foundation. Photo: Sebastiano Pellion di Persano

Gagosian’s booth at Art Basel Miami Beach 2022. Artwork, left to right: © Gerhard Richter; © Amoako Boafo; © Richard Prince; © 2022 Judd Foundation/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York; © Richard Diebenkorn Foundation; © The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc./Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York; © Stanley Whitney. Photo: Sebastiano Pellion di Persano

Art Fair

Art Basel Miami Beach 2022

December 1–3, 2022, booth D5
Miami Beach Convention Center
artbasel.com

Gagosian is pleased to present a selection of modern and contemporary works at Art Basel Miami Beach 2022. Returning to Miami for the fair’s twentieth anniversary, the gallery is honored to have participated each year the fair has been held.

Gagosian’s booth at Art Basel Miami Beach 2022. Artwork, left to right: © Gerhard Richter; © Amoako Boafo; © Richard Prince; © 2022 Judd Foundation/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York; © Richard Diebenkorn Foundation; © The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc./Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York; © Stanley Whitney. Photo: Sebastiano Pellion di Persano

Installation view, Simon Hantaï: Accrochage, Gagosian, rue de Ponthieu, Paris, April 5–May 28, 2022. Artwork © Archives Simon Hantaï/ADAGP, Paris

Installation

Simon Hantaï
Accrochage

April 5–May 28, 2022
Gagosian, rue de Ponthieu, Paris

Gagosian, Paris, is pleased to present a selection of paintings by Simon Hantaï (1922–2008). In anticipation of his forthcoming retrospective at Fondation Louis Vuitton, curated by Anne Baldassari and opening on May 18, 2022, these works will be installed on the ground floor of the gallery at 4 rue de Ponthieu. The grouping, which is dominated by bold, vibrant colors evocative of spring blossoms, features several paintings made by Hantaï using variations on his iconic pliage (folding) technique.

Installation view, Simon Hantaï: Accrochage, Gagosian, rue de Ponthieu, Paris, April 5–May 28, 2022. Artwork © Archives Simon Hantaï/ADAGP, Paris

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Museum Exhibitions

Installation view, Touching the Void, Museum of Modern Art, New York, open from November 14, 2020. Artwork, left to right: © Archives Simon Hantaï/ADAGP, Paris, 2021; © Carlos Rojas; © 2021 Robert Ryman; © 2021 Fundación Gego; © Liliana Porter. Photo: Jonathan Muzikar

On View

Simon Hantaï in
Touching the Void

Open from November 14, 2020
Museum of Modern Art, New York
www.moma.org

As part of New Art from Wall to Wall, the Museum of Modern Art is presenting never-before and rarely shown works in themed, reimagined collection galleries. The gallery Touching the Void explores an important artistic tendency of the 1960s: a shift away from the idea that art should express the artist’s interior life. Works in this vein searched for a poetics of bare form and focused on structural elements such as line, plane, and volume. Whether strict or playful, the work of these artists tested the meditative possibilities of objectivity, challenging viewers to heighten their sensory perception. Work by Simon Hantaï is included.

Installation view, Touching the Void, Museum of Modern Art, New York, open from November 14, 2020. Artwork, left to right: © Archives Simon Hantaï/ADAGP, Paris, 2021; © Carlos Rojas; © 2021 Robert Ryman; © 2021 Fundación Gego; © Liliana Porter. Photo: Jonathan Muzikar

Simon Hantaï, Tabula, 1975 © Archives Simon Hantaï/ADAGP, Paris. Photo: Louis Bourjac

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Simon Hantaï
Folding

September 28, 2023–February 4, 2024
Espace Louis Vuitton Osaka, Japan
www.espacelouisvuittontokyo.com

Simon Hantaï: Folding is presented as part of Fondation Louis Vuitton’s Hors-les-murs program, which introduces the Fondation’s collection to a broad international audience. The exhibition includes nine works by Hantaï made between 1960 and 1984 and is the program’s fourth show at Espace Louis Vuitton Osaka.

Simon Hantaï, Tabula, 1975 © Archives Simon Hantaï/ADAGP, Paris. Photo: Louis Bourjac

Helen Frankenthaler, Overture, 1992 © 2023 Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, Inc./Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

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The Inner Island

April 28–November 4, 2023
Fondation Carmignac, Porquerolles, France
www.fondationcarmignac.com

This exhibition, which features more than eighty works by fifty artists, presents visitors with new, unknown worlds floating outside familiar geographies and temporalities. The artists included break away from reality, bringing to life fictional, mental, and abstract islands. Work by Harold Ancart, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Alexander Calder, Helen Frankenthaler, Simon Hantaï, Roy Lichtenstein, Albert Oehlen, and Christopher Wool is included.

Helen Frankenthaler, Overture, 1992 © 2023 Helen Frankenthaler Foundation, Inc./Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Simon Hantaï, Festmény, c. 1950, Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest © Archives Simon Hantaï/ADAGP, Paris, 2023. Photo: © Szépművészeti Múzeum

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Hantaï, Klee és más absztrakciók

December 7, 2022–April 16, 2023
Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest
www.mfab.hu

This exhibition, whose title translates to Hantaï, Klee, and Other Abstractions, pays tribute to Simon Hantaï, who was born in Hungary a hundred years ago and attained international fame while living in France. Through more than sixty works by Hantaï, including twenty-four previously unseen, and eight gifted to the museum by the artist’s family, the exhibition explores the sources of inspiration he drew on during his years in Paris between 1948 and 1952. The show also presents works by Sam Francis, Paul Klee, Joan Miró, Pablo Picasso, and Jackson Pollock, among others—all of whom were influential figures for Hantaï.

Simon Hantaï, Festmény, c. 1950, Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest © Archives Simon Hantaï/ADAGP, Paris, 2023. Photo: © Szépművészeti Múzeum

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