Simon Hantaï

Hantaï began creating pliage paintings in 1960, conceiving of the process as a marriage between Surrealist automatism and the allover gestures of Abstract Expressionism. The technique dominated the work he made during the rest of his career, re-emerging in diverse forms—sometimes as a network of crisp creases of unpainted canvas spanning the composition, and at other times as a monochrome mass manifesting in the center of an unprimed canvas. His technique of "pliage" (folding): the canvas is first folded in various forms, then painted with a brush, and unfolded, leaving apparent blank sections of the canvas interrupted by vibrant splashes of color. The technique was inspired by the marks left folding on his mother’ apron. From 1967 to 1968 he worked on the Meuns series where he studies the theme of the figure. Meun is the name of a small village in the Forest of Fontainebleau where the artist lived starting 1966. Hantaï stated: "It was while working on the Studies that I realized what my true subject was – the resurgence of the ground underneath my painting." In contrast with the Meun (1967–68), the figure, in the Studies (1969), is absorbed and the white detaches from being the background and becomes dynamic.

• Rosenberg, Karen, "Art in Review: Simon Hantaï," The New York Times, 5/23/13. • Rodgers, Paul, "Simon Hantaï & Andy Warhol – The Fate of Modern Art in the Post-Second World War Era" 4/1/10. • Rodgers, Paul, “The Resurgent Ground: Simon Hantaï,” The Modern Aesthetic, 2017. • Rodgers, Paul, Pablo Picasso | Simon Hantaï: Drama Shared, Cubism and the Fold. 9W Publications, 2020. • Cochran, Samuel, "Simon Hantaï's Abstract Paintings At Paul Kasmin Gallery, Centre Pompidou," Architectural Digest, 5/7/13. • "Simon Hantaï," Time Out New York, 4/24/13. • Ostrow, Saul, "Reviews: Simon Hantaï," Art in America, 9/11/11. • An essay on Hantaï by art historian Molly Warnock • Warnock, Molly. Simon Hantaï and the Reserves of Painting. Pennsylvania State University Press, 2020. • by Ben Lerner