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HANTAI Simon

Painter

(Bia 1922 8th December - Paris 2008 12th Sept. )

1941-1948: Hungarian College of Fine Arts, master: Villmos Aba Novák and Béla Kontuly. 1948: Scholarship holder of the Roman Hungarian Academy; 1967 Award of the Foundation Maeght; Hantai has been living in Paris since 1949. In the year of 1941 Hantai began his studies as a Fresco Painting major at the College of Fine Arts in Budapest Hungary, without any prior professional preliminary training, nor any pragmatic or artistic knowledge. During his college years the works of Csontváry (whose Gerlóczy exhibition was kept temporarily on the walls of the halls of the building on Andrássy Street), the French postimpressionists, and the painting of Bonnard and Matisse had the greatest influence on his artistic attitude. A number of self-portraits can be found amongst his early works; independent of the stylistic multi-sidedness of these works the French influence on his works may be strongly recognized. In the year of 1948 he traveled thoroughly in Italy, the settling down in Paris he continued his experimentations in different styles and techniques (dripping, montage, frottage, etc). Fantasy beings, organic forms and biomorphic figures first appeared in his works in 1950. He began painting his large-scale surrealist works following his acquaintance with Brenton: his canvases become covered with organic plantlike forms, the strongly colored picture planes, painted over with black. Parallel with his surrealist works, and as a result of his surrealist practice Hantai's paintings became more and more gesticulated, signs and sybols take the place of the previously use figuration and the figurative forms. In a similar manner to his contemporaries the introduction of the New York school in Paris (1952), as well as the works of Pollock had a significant influence upon him moving towards gesture painting. Hantai painted his all over gesture paintings (Sexe-Prime. Hommage a Jean-Pierre Brisset, 1956), his dark cross canvases on white background (Peinture - Souvenir de l'avenir, 1956) as well as his calligraphies (Écriture rose, 1958-59) following his breaking up with Brenton, and surrealism (Alice in Wonderland exhibition). Hantai began using the technique of pliage, related closely to both the batik and décalcomanie technique, as a mode of painting: he painted the previously crumpled canvas, then, following its drying the paint marks which come forth as a result of the process become the canvases own imprints. On the surfaces of these pliages, similar to the paper cut-outs of Matisse, color, form, and line appear as one. The painting process of producing the given work of art resembles closely the attitude of action painting. The works, produced with the technique of pliage are organized into series, formal sequences. The gradual elimination of colors from the series entitled Les Meuns (1966 - 1968) produces a line of monochrome images. His final pliage series entitled Tabulas lilas, of 1982 was prepared without the usage of colors within his canvases, yet solely with white paint. In 1982 Hantai stopped painting. He has re-begun working since 1994: by cutting up his former canvases, then, completely eliminating act of painting, making use of certain segments of the images, using different duplicating and multiplying methods (e.g.: photography, sifter prints), he makes use of the newly created reproduced pieces in new works of art.

(Translated by: Vladimir Végh)