Prints and Drawings Room
View by appointment- Artist
- Hans Hartung 1904–1989
- Medium
- Lithograph on paper
- Dimensions
- Image: 501 × 320 mm
- Collection
- Tate
- Acquisition
- Purchased 1986
- Reference
- P77142
Catalogue entry
Hans Hartung born 1909
P77142 L36
1957
Lithograph 501 x 320 (19 1/2 x 12 1/2) on Arches paper same size; watermark ‘Arches'; printed by Jean Pons, Paris and published by Delphic Art, New York in an edition of 100
Inscribed ‘Hartung' below image b.r. and ‘45/100' below image b.l.
Purchased at Hauswedell & Nolte, Hamburg (Grant-in-Aid) 1986
Lit: Rolf Schmücking, Hans Hartung: Werkverzeichnis der Graphik 1921-1965, Brunswick 1965, p.99 repr.
P77141
and P77142 are from the series of twenty-six lithographs (L10-L36) that Hartung produced in 1957 all of which were printed by Jean Pons. Unlike Hartung's preceding lithographic series in 1952-3 (L1-L9 inclusive) a vertical format is consistently employed in the lithographs of 1957.
While the majority of the 1957 lithographs are black and white, indicating the use of one lithographic stone, both P77141
and P77142 employ an additional colour as a background. In P77141
this ground is pale grey-brown and in P77142 it is light green. In both prints the colour ground looks as if it has been washed-in with a wide brush. While the ground of ‘L10' is very thinly spread that of ‘L36' achieves a greater density.
Both lithographs show an accumulation of gestural marks orientated along the vertical axis of the work. Throughout the 1957 series Hartung explores a very narrow vocabulary of formal elements and a minimal technical range. The earlier works of 1952-3 were, in general, denser and more complex compositions, employing, within a single image, several different abstract motifs and variations in the strength and direction of the lines drawn. In the year following the series to which P77141
and P77142 belong Hartung once again became more expansive in his graphic work and began to explore the visual relations between curvilinear and straight lines.
Published in:
The Tate Gallery 1984-86: Illustrated Catalogue of Acquisitions Including Supplement to Catalogue of Acquisitions 1982-84, Tate Gallery, London 1988, pp.375-6
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