Simon Hantaï

Exhibition at the Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris, 18 May 2022 - 29 August 2022

This catalogue of the retrospective organised on the occasion of the centenary of the birth of the Hungarian painter Simon Hantaï (1922-2008) brings together more than 130 works by the artist, many of which have never been exhibited before, most of them large formats dating from 1957-2000.

The book retraces the entirety of Hantaï's didactic career, from the painting Écriture rose (1958 - 1959) to his "last studio," passing through the major successive periods of his work, notably Monochromes, Panses, Meuns, Tabulas, Peintures polychromes et Laissées.

The decisive artistic influences on Hantaï's development are highlighted through the presentation of works by Henri Matisse and Jackson Pollock. Finally, the friendship and working relationship established in the early 1960s between Simon Hantaï and the young artists around him at the Cité des Fleurs, Michel Parmentier and Daniel Buren, are evoked through confrontations.