Hans Hartung Istituto Nazionale Per La Grafica Fontana di Trevi Rome, Italy, amazing FREE Exhibition.

The Hans Hartung exhibition at the Istituto Nazionale Per la Grafica in Rome literally on Fontana di Trevi was a happy surprise both in terms of selection of work (there were pieces which have not been shown to the public before) and the location of the building. I mean it was literally on Fontana di Trevi in Rome. I really don't understand why they weren't more people visiting this amazing free exhibition. I mean as there were only two other people viewing the exhibition at the same time as me I got a private tour of the rooms and the exhibition; the friendly attendant even opened the window for me to see Fontana di Trevi below, stunning views and the flag flapping away on The Quirinale building. The exhibition itself was brilliant; it showed clearly how Hans Hartung (1904-1989) worked (at the end of the exhibition there was a film about him and how he worked in his studio which was really interesting) and it included works from the Hans

Hartung Bergman Foundation Antibes. It included biographic details - what interested me most was that he studied at the Graphical Akademie fur Kunste and in 1925 he went to a class run by Kandinsky but he wasn't convinced of non figurative art with a dogmatic agenda, as he said himself 'his speech on the use and symbolism of the circle, oval, square and rectangle I had neither seduced nor convinced. I had no desire to paint the coils to represent eternity'. Between 1927-1929 he went on holiday in the South of France and studied Cezanne, Van Gogh, and Cubism.  These studies were to influence his work until 1933; he also studied the relationship between mathematics and aesthetics; in 1928, in Monaco, he studied painting techniques & materials with Max Dormer and in 1929 he married Norwegian painter Anna-Eva Bergman. I always enjoy reading about the biography of the artist and his I found interesting especially because I believe we are living in troubled times so I find inspiring an artist who experienced difficulties. The big change in his life was the death of his father which caused him to experience insecurity, and subsequently he had serious nervous problems.  National Socialism was on the rise so he decided to leave Germany and moved to the Balearic Islands with his wife, and his moods improved - as he said himself 'We were living in poverty but life smiled on us again. My mood improved, I found myself a taste for painting', but all of this was short-lived as his assets were blocked in Germany and he was forced to leave the Balearic Islands and go first to Paris then to Stockolm.


L 11, 1957 – lithography

 

Around 1937 he is strongly influenced by the sculptures of Julio Gonzales and at the same time is experiencing extreme poverty and having problems with lack of materials, but it is at this point - I feel - that there is an important change in his work, thanks to his friend called Helion, who tells him to stay faithful not to change mistakes on the canvas or on the drawings and to reproduce mistakes and be natural in his work. Hartung will stick to this way of working till the 1960's. I thought while looking at the exhibition that I did find Hartung's work to be very precise, physical so  opposite to someone who just reproduces mistakes. The most difficult period for Hartung is between 1942-1944 when he gets incarcerated in Gerona, the death of Julio Gonzales whom he admired, and then he gets badly wounded and is operated on his knee with no anaesthetics; all his drawings of this period are lost. Between 1945-1946 he gets the French Nationality Military Medal, the Croix de Guerre and finally the Legion of Honour in1952 has many exhibitions.

In the present exhibition are many lithographs; there are some large works placed opposite smaller works of similar nature contrasting in colours with a minimalist selection of colour mainly simple intertwined stripes or lines, for example black on white or white, blue and black or white black and yellow, but it's all well defined. The works are done on paper and on canvas, they are gestural, but they don't feel heavy, they don't have names, they are called simply H1973-24,73 or L 1974-14,1974;  some are lithographs like L1973-45,1973, others are made using acrylics like T1974-R14 or T1975-R35,1975; there are also some woodcuts, etching acquatint. I am interested in this as I have worked in printmaking myself.

G 8, 1953 - way to sugar and aquatint - two bars

H 1973-26 1973 - woodcut



The 1974-14 1974 - lithography ink - two bars

 

I was also interested in the combination of materials he uses. Sometimes he uses vynil on canvas, other times gesso on board. Some of the works in the exhibition are scratched 'sgraffiato' that he does  quite unusually using a brush. I particularly liked T1963-E25 that you can see below, it gave sense of suspension; I found it to be ethereal, also T1963-45, L120-L93,L106. In all the works I observed a rhythm of different lines or scratches with a dramatic effect and made to be central on the canvas or drawing but I don't feel, as other art critics have said, that they are 'expressionist' as for me they are well thought meaning planned, yes there is a sense of direct feeling but more towards a mimetic activity than expressionism, and it has been recently discovered that he based them on sketches which kind of changes the original dynamic of the work, and yes they are gestural, physical but some of the work actually made me think of nature in a very abstract way, of blades of grass, and one can see clearly he is not interested in observation work or working from memory.