"In my opinion, ‘abstract’ painting is not an 'ism', as is the case for many recent movements, for it denotes neither a 'style' nor a 'period' in art history but is simply a new means of expression, another human language, one more direct than the painting of yesteryear."
A French painter of German origin, Hans Hartung is one of the major representatives of lyrical abstraction. Hartung champions experimentation and uncompromising modernity in his work, adding a conceptual dimension. Among his many experiments surrounding the original and the authentic are tests of color and format within a rigorous atelier context, framing, photography, enlargement, repetition, and, most surprisingly, full reproductions of his own works, all of which resonate today by dint of their contemporaneity. Brimming with dynamism and liberty, his paintings are united by the desire to develop a new pictorial language.