Simon Hantaï

Private collection, France (acquired directly from the artist)
Acquired from the above by the present owner

Kálmán Makláry, Simon Hantaï, Catalogue Raisonné, Volume 1 (1949-1959), Budapest 2012, illustrated p. 170

Painted on two independant pieces of canvas joined together by the artist; these have not been lined. Examination under UV light reveals a line of retouching on the juncture of the two pieces of canvas.There are some small repaired tears, the larger of which is approx. 2 cm long, to the lower left corner, with associated lines of retouching visible under UV light. There is an additionnal small repaired tear (approx. 0.5 cm long) to the canvas to the right part of the upper edge. There are two small repaired holes with associated cosmetic dots of retouching visible under UV light towards the upper left corner. There is an additionnal small dot of retouching approximately 34 cm from the bottom edge and 54 cm from the right edge. There are a dot and two vertical lines of fluoresce visible under UV light relating to varnish, possibly original, in the lower left quadrant. There are a few tiny dots of paint loss in places and some paint shrinkage throughout the composition, probably original, predominately to the dark pigment.
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In 1953, the date of Simon Hantaï's work, Andre Bréton gave him his first solo show at his Galerie de l'Etoile scellée. In his forward he wrote: "In this distressing and all invading noise of jangling bells to which the art of today can be resumed – where everything is so well organized that it is always the same "creatures" that "lead", attesting to the fact that domestication has been perfectly achieved – finally the sound of gongs!"

Freshly arrived from his native Hungary in 1948, Hantaï placed a work in front of Breton's door, the champion leader of Surrealism. Hantaï's juvenile attraction for the movement and his affiliation will last until 1955. After that his art revealed the affirmation of a highly gestural painter and a new order through a new method – the method of folding – that Hantaï explored and discovered in the sublime crevices of the mantels of his Virgins (Les Mariales).

In 1953, Hantaï's surprising originality is at work. Breton was right. Remarkable for the daring use of fuchsia known to be Breton's favourite colour and in the deliberate interference of cracks obtained through experimentation with the unprecedented technique of dried painted layers, this work is part of a narrow and still confidential body of works from the painter's surrealist period.