“T1950-2” was created in 1950 and marks the beginning of a decade that was to become a crucial phase in Hans Hartung’s artistic development. In the 1950s, he rose to prominence as one of the leading representatives of European Informalism. Shortly before, he had his first solo exhibition at the legendary Lydia Conti Gallery in Paris, the collection from which our work originally comes. During this period, Hartung established contacts with artists such as Mark Rothko and Willi Baumeister, and his works increasingly found their way into leading private collections, such as those of Ottomar Domnick and Genia and Charles Zadok.
Our work “T1950-2” was part of the Zadok collection for around three decades. In 1952, the work was shown in Chicago as part of an exhibition featuring other pieces from this collection. Further exhibitions in the 1950s demonstrate that this masterfully reduced work is an outstanding example of Hartung's dynamic use of light and shadow as well as of color and form. The artist creates an atmosphere of blue and gray tones in the background, embedding black lines and blotchy structures within it. With the floating forms in the open pictorial space, he creates an almost weightless effect that guides the viewer's eye into distant celestial spaces and lends the composition a dreamlike, meditative depth. It is this kind of controlled spontaneity that characterizes his work in the years that follow.
Hans Hartung leads an eventful life until his career takes off after World War II. Born in Leipzig in 1904, he became interested in non-representational art while still in school and created abstract compositions using lines and blots. According to his own statements, he processed childhood impressions of thunderstorms and lightning in these works. In 1925, he encountered the works of Wassily Kandinsky, which inspired him to study painting in Leipzig, Dresden, and Munich. From 1935 onwards, Hartung lived in Paris, where he initially worked under difficult personal and financial circumstances. During World War II, he fought for the French side, was imprisoned several times, and even lost a leg in combat in 1944. In recognition of his services, he was granted French citizenship in 1946. France remained his home until he died in Antibes in 1989.
Throughout his life, Hartung remained distant from representational art. He always sought a free, immediate form of expression—a controlled gesture between chance and composition. “T1950-2” is an early and impressive testimony to this search for painterly freedom. [AW]