Exhibition

Simon Hantaï: Les blancs de la couleur, la couleur du blanc

27 Jan 2022 – 5 Mar 2022

Regular hours

Monday
Closed
Tuesday
10:00 – 18:00
Wednesday
10:00 – 18:00
Thursday
10:00 – 18:00
Friday
10:00 – 18:00
Saturday
10:00 – 18:00
Sunday
10:00 – 18:00

Save Event: Simon Hantaï: Les blancs de la couleur, la couleur du blanc1

I've seen this

People who have saved this event:

close

Gagosian is pleased to present an exhibition of eighteen paintings by Simon Hantaï (1922–2008).

About

Les blancs de la couleur, la couleur du blanc, curated by Anne Baldassari, is Gagosian’s second solo exhibition of Hantaï’s work since the gallery announced its representation of the artist’s estate in 2019, and occurs in the centenary year of his birth. Many of the works in the exhibition, which occupies both floors of the gallery at 980 Madison Avenue, have not been previously exhibited.

Les blancs de la couleur, la couleur du blanc—the title alludes to Hantaï’s use of white in several series of works—features paintings made using the artist’s pliage (folding) technique, in which a canvas is crumpled and knotted, painted over, and then spread out to reveal a pattern of alternations between pigment and ground. In contrast to LES NOIRS DU BLANC, LES BLANCS DU NOIR, also curated by Baldassari, an exhibition of black-and-white paintings and prints dating from 1951 to 1997 that was presented at Gagosian Le Bourget in 2019–20, the current selection focuses on work distinguished by color combinations of primary and secondary colors, including blue and orange, yellow and purple, and red and green. These powerful hues had a unique significance for Hantaï, representing a link to the clothing worn by his mother on feast days—a foundational image from childhood—and reflecting his study of Paul Cezanne, Henri Matisse, and Goethe’s Theory of Colors (1810).

Hantaï began making pliage paintings in 1960, conceiving of the process as a synthesis of Surrealist automatism and the allover gestures of Abstract Expressionism. The technique dominated his output from this point on, and Les blancs de la couleur, la couleur du blanc features examples from several series executed according to its strictures. The series Études (1968–71) and Blancs (1973–74) illustrate Hantaï’s efforts to expand the white of the canvas with the addition of abstract figures generated by the folding process. The Tabulas series (1972–76 and 1980–82) also features such designs but regulates them through the systematicity of the works’ allover folding and monochrome coloration. Thus the loose grids of the Tabulas present sets of variations that embody the conjunction of intentional and incidental mark making. For Hantaï, pliage acts and thinks painting.

What to expect? Toggle

Exhibiting artistsToggle

Simon Hantaï

Comments

Have you been to this event? Share your insights and give it a review below.