Simon HANTAI (1922-2008)

Composition, circa 1958 Oil on canvas. 199 x 123 cm Certificate of Jean Fournier. Provenance : - Purchased from the Galerie Fournier on April 20, 1989 - Françoise Tournié Gallery (label on the back) The Hantaï retrospective at the Musée National d'Art Moderne in 2013 and the exhibition at the Fondation Louis Vuitton in 2021 have brought this artist back to his highest level. Our work, dated circa 1958, belongs to the artist's scriptural period, preceding his 1960 foldings. During this period he worked on "sign paintings", monochrome canvases with a dark background, in grisaille, where he traced the essential signs of the spiritual and mystical world he wanted to defend. Abstract calligraphy, gesturality, signs with a mysterious and spiritual vocation, the work wins over with its elegance typical of the Parisian abstracts of the 1950s. This work is registered in the archives of the of the Gallery Jean Fournier under the number CF. 1.8.22.