Hans Hartung’s dynamic and experimental practice evokes a powerful sense of self expression. His singular visual language established him as a leader in the field of 20th century abstraction and has had a profound influence over subsequent generations of artists, in particular proving inspirational to the trajectory of American lyrical abstraction in the 1960s and 1970s. Hartung’s emotional abstractions eliminated all figurative elements, pursuing such freedom of gesture and spatial dynamism with a litany of non-traditional tools. His late paintings, much of which were made from the confines of a wheelchair, is amongst the most vigorous of his near seven-decades-long career, presenting a renewed sense of freedom, energy and ambition.

Major international presentations include Younger European Painters: A Selection, Guggenheim Museum (1953–54); a retrospective at Musée national d’art moderne, Paris (1969); and solo exhibitions at Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (1975) and Musée d’art moderne de la Ville de Paris (1980).

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