Simon Hantaï
Illustration — Simon Hantaï in his studio (Meun, 1974) Simon Hantaï (7 December 1922, Biatorbágy, Hungary – Paris, 12 September 2008; took French nationality in 1966) is a painter generally associated with abstract art.
Also recorded as Simon Hantai · Simon Hantaî
Simon Hantaï

Globetrotter19 · CC BY-SA 3.0
- Born
- 1922 · Bia.
- Died
- 2008 · 14th arrondissement of Paris.
- Nationality
- Hungary · France
- Occupation
- painter
- Fields
- painting · abstract art
- Languages
- French
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Illustration — Simon Hantaï in his studio (Meun, 1974) Simon Hantaï (7 December 1922, Biatorbágy, Hungary – Paris, 12 September 2008; took French nationality in 1966) is a painter generally associated with abstract art.
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gnd · 103652034X · wikidata · Q870924 · wikipedia · Simon Hantaï
In this article
Biography
Biography
The recorded working language is French. The field of work recorded is painting and abstract art. Places of work recorded in the authority are Budapest, Italy and France. Work by Simon Hantaï is recorded in the collections of Museum of Modern Art, Israel Museum, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston and Hungarian National Gallery.
After studying at the Budapest School of Fine Art, he traveled through Italy on foot and moved to France in 1948. André Breton wrote the preface to his first exhibition catalogue in Paris, but in 1955 Hantaï broke with the surrealist group over Breton's refusal to accept any similarity between the surrealist technique of automatic writing and Jackson Pollock's methods of action painting. A retrospective of his work was held at the Centre Pompidou in 1976, and in 1982 he represented France at the Venice Biennale. He completely disappeared from the public scene during the 1980s and 1990s, "a streak of ethical obstinacy virtually unparalleled in contemporary art" according to Art in America. A representative collection of Hantaï's works is held at the Musée National d'Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, and at the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris. A Simon Hantaï Retrospective opened at the Centre Pompidou on May 22, 2013, with more than 130 works from 1949 to 1990s, and a full color illustrated catalog.
Selected works
Selected works
• Mariales (Cloaks) (1960–62). Mariale M.A.4 Red sold for 650,000 euros in 2005. • Meuns (1967–68) • Etudes (Studies) (1969) • Blancs (the Whites) (1973–74) • Tabulas (from 1974) • Laissées (Leftovers)(1981–1994)
Exhibitions
Exhibitions
• Dominique Fourcade, Isabelle Monod-Fontaine, Alfred Pacquement, Jean Coyner. Simon Hantaï, Paris: Centre Pompidou, 2013
Private life
Private life
He is the father of musicians Pierre et Jérôme Hantaï.
Life and career
Dated record
Life and career
The full dated record · 2 entries
1922
Simon Hantaï born at Bia.
2008
Simon Hantaï died at 14th arrondissement of Paris.
Places
Named by the record
Places
Only places the record itself states, plotted where the house gazetteer settles their coordinates. Nothing is inferred from a name or a nationality.
Bia.
Birth place
14th arrondissement of Paris.
Death place
Art practice – The folding method
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.
Primary material
Documents and archives
reference work
- Wikidata, structured authority record Q870924: Simon Hantaï
Reputable secondary · Wikimedia Foundation
- “Simon Hantaï”, English Wikipedia, consulted as further reading
Reputable secondary · Wikipedia
scholarly publication
- Simon Hantaï and the Reserves of Painting, 2020
Scholarly · Crossref registry · 2020
Selected bibliography
• 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

Memorial of Simon Hantai by János Szinte, 2014. - Szent István Street, Bia, Biatorbágy, Pest County, Hungary.
Globetrotter19

Memorial of Simon Hantai by János Szinte, 2014. - Szent István Street, Bia, Biatorbágy, Pest County, Hungary.
Globetrotter19
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
scholarly publication
Simon Hantaï and the Reserves of Painting, 2020Crossref registry
Verifiedreference work
Wikidata, structured authority record Q870924: Simon HantaïWikimedia Foundation
Partially resolvedreference work
Partially resolved
A further 1 witness is held back from this article because the person or object named in it is not yet resolved to this record. They are kept, not discarded, and return once the identity is established.
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