Peinture 1963

Simon Hantai, a Hungarian-French artist, made this painting in France, but its date remains unknown. Hantai is most famous for his technique called “pliage,” from the French word for folding. He would crumple the canvas and then selectively apply paint before unfolding it to reveal a pattern. This method breaks with the traditional artistic institutions and ideas. It’s neither classical figuration nor pure abstraction. It's also not expressionism as we are used to because the artist relinquishes some control to chance. To fully understand the environment in which Hantai was working, we might look to other artists who were experimenting with similar techniques, like Yves Klein. We might also look to writings of the time, such as the manifestos of the Nouveau Réalisme movement. This helps us see how Hantai both fit into and pushed against the artistic norms of his time. He questions not just the role of the artist but also the nature of the artwork itself.