Hans Heinrich Ernst Hartung

Born. 21.09.1904 in Leipzig
Died. 08.12.1989 in Antibes

German graphic artist and painter, pioneer of the Informel movement

About the artist

Hans Heinrich Ernst Hartung was born on 21 September 1904 in Leipzig.  He went to school in Dresden and spent a lot of his time creating art in his notebooks from ink spills and lines and adding elements of lightning which he had observed during storms. In 1924 he attended the University of Leipzig to study art literature and philosophy but after seeing the works of Kandinsky he decided to study art at the Leipzig Academy of Visual Arts and then the  Dresden Academy of Fine Arts copying paintings of the masters that inspired him to move to France..

In Paris, Hartung didn’t have much contact with other artists and spent his time, like many other artists at that time, copying the works of old and modern masters.
In 1928, while visiting Munich, he started examining various painting styles. In 1929 he married Anna-Eva Bergman, the artist, but it was dissolved very quickly by his aunt. As Hartung was in France at the time without a passport, he was unable to speak to her about it.

He lived on the island of Menorca for two years before moving to Paris in 1935.

In 1939 he married Roberta González the daughter of the sculptor Julio González and left to join the French Foreign Legion. In 1944 he was seriously wounded and as a result, lost a leg. One year later, he received his French citizenship and was inducted into the Legion of Honor.

He had his first exhibition in Paris in 1947 and by the 1950s his art had become highly acclaimed.
In 1952, Hartung and Anna-Eva Bergman met again at a retrospective of his father-in-law González and married a second time in 1957. They remained together this time until her death.

He died on 7 December 1989, in Antibes, France.