254 - HANS HARTUNG (Germany, 1904 – France, 1989).

HANS HARTUNG (Germany, 1904 – France, 1989). Untitled. Silkscreen print on paper, H.C. edition. Signed and numbered in pencil. Shows some water stains. Measurements: 77 x 60 cm; 78.5 x 61 cm (frame). Hans Hartung grew up in a family of artists, which sparked his interest in art at a very early age. He studied at the academies in Dresden and Munich, where he came into contact with masters such as Nolde, and where he began an early phase of his career closely aligned with the aesthetic principles of Cubism. In 1926, he left his country with the intention of moving beyond local artistic traditions and opening himself up to other schools of thought; for this reason, he decided to travel through Italy before finally settling in Paris. He held his first solo exhibition in Dresden in 1931, but shortly thereafter he was rejected by Nazi Germany for being considered a “degenerate” artist; in fact, in 1935 he was nearly arrested for attempting to sell his work in Germany. During World War II, he enlisted in the French Foreign Legion; subsequently, he was tracked down by the Gestapo, arrested, and locked in a red-painted room in an attempt to damage his eyesight. Beginning in 1947, his fame within the French art scene began to grow. That same year, he exhibited for the first time in Paris, and in 1960 he received the Grand Prize at the Venice Biennale. His work is currently represented at MoMA in New York, the Reina Sofía in Madrid, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, the Tate Gallery in London, and the Haifa Museum in Israel, among many other centers, institutions, and collections around the world.