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20 HANS HARTUNG 1904-1989 T 1971-E43, 1971 Signed and dated 'Hartung 71' lower left; titled, dedicated and dated on the stretcher 'T 1971-E43, 16.XI.71, avec l'amité de Hartung' Acrylic on canvas 23 5 / 8 x 31 7 / 8 in, 60 x 81 cm Provenance Private Collection, Switzerland Literature This work is to be included in the forthcoming catalogue raisonné being prepared by the Fondation Hartung Bergman, Antibes. Driven by the dialectic between chaos and divine order, Hans Hartung translated rhythm, movement and colour into a coherent visual order that was governed by the harmonious laws of nature. As a student in 1922 Hartung produced a series of Tachiste watercolours an astonishing three years before first hearing Wassily Kandinsky discuss abstraction at a lecture in Leipzig. While Hartung argued that he was 'neither seduced nor convinced' by Kandinsky's theoretic systematism, the young artist drew upon the organic, dynamic forms of his work. Following the death of his father in 1932, Hartung decisively turned to abstraction. Forced to flee Germany for Paris, he joined the French Foreign Legion. The violence he experienced as a prisoner of the Gestapo and the amputation of his leg informed the development of his existential painting of forceful marks. Hartung championed the notion that art could be governed by the motivating forces of nature. He was particularly interested in Vincent Van Gogh's anthropomorphic trees and forests that seemed to have been ravaged by the same natural forces as humanity. In T 1971-E43, each mark across the canvas corroborates the pulse of blood or the germination of a living being, suggesting that Hartung's work was itself complicit with nature. Hartung explained the vitality of his later work as follows, 'Since 1970, I have had the feeling of renewal. As if I had been granted new energy, a new youth. And, above all, the need to make great paintings'. This stimulation was prompted by Hartung's new collaboration with the gallerist Paul Lefebre, with whom he exhibited in New York in January 1971. Confined to his wheel chair, Hartung allowed his technique to become even more expressive and free.