Untitled (T1938-31) 1938

Hans Hartung made this dynamic painting with black ink on paper, and you can feel how fast he must have been working. The paint is applied so directly; splatters and spots are dispersed around two dominant black marks. I can imagine Hartung in his studio, the brush loaded with ink, quickly moving across the surface with conviction. What a feeling, that rush of making marks! His gestures are firm and confident, yet there’s also a fragility. A bit like a dance. I wonder what was on his mind when he was making it. Was he happy, sad, or somewhere in between? There's an immediacy to the whole painting, as if each stroke was made without hesitation. This kind of gesture is part of a much wider conversation across painting, people like Franz Kline come to mind. It’s like they’re passing the brush across time. They all show us that painting is about feeling and movement, not just what you see, but how you experience the world.