Hans Hartung: The Last Paintings 1989

Cheim & Read is pleased to announce a landmark exhibition of Hans Hartung’s late paintings, dating from 1987--1989. This is the first showing of Hartung’s works in New York since his controversial 1975 exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and focuses on the artistic output of his last years of life. The show will be accompanied by a full color catalogue with an essay by Joe Fyfe. Hans Hartung was born in Leipzig, Germany in 1904, but is often identified by his artistic activity in Paris and his involvement in the French Art Informel or Tachist movements. His life and work were greatly affected by the political and social upheavals in France and Germany during the Second World War; after fleeing his native Germany (he was considered a “degenerate“ artist by the Gestapo) he fought with the French Foreign Legion and lost his right leg on the Alsatian front. His post-war paintings -- emotional abstractions which explored varieties of gesture and mark -- were considered reacti