NEWSLETTER MARCH 2021 View this email in your browser (https://mailchi.mp/a7636d73cab5/nahmad-contemporary-newsletter-september-13341359?e=c39411af91) http://www.nahmadcontemporary.com/ A R T F A I R S https://fiac.viewingrooms.com/fr/?utm_campaign=FIAC-21-EXP-INSC-INFO-OVR-Email-EN-Infos-VIP&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Eloqua&querytoken= H A N S H A R T U N G F I A C Online Viewing Rooms (https://fiac.viewingrooms.com/fr/?utm_campaign=FIAC-21-EXP-INSC-INFO-OVR-Email-EN-Infos-VIP&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Eloqua&querytoken=) VIP Preview | March 2 - 3, 2021 Public Access | March 4 - 7, 2021 VIP access, please contact the gallery (mailto:[email protected]?subject=F%20I%20A%20C%20-%20Online%20Viewing%20Rooms%20%7C%20request%20for%20VIP%20ACCESS) https://fiac.viewingrooms.com/fr/?utm_campaign=FIAC-21-EXP-INSC-INFO-OVR-Email-EN-Infos-VIP&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Eloqua&querytoken= Hans Hartung in the 1970s Nahmad Contemporary is pleased to present three paintings created in the 1970s by Hans Hartung. Hans Hartung (b. 1904, Leipzig, Germany; d.1989, Antibes, France) is one of the most acclaimed European painters of the postwar era. Settling in Paris in 1945, Hartung worked among artists associated with the School of Paris and Art Informel, such as Jean Dubuffet and Pierre Soulages. Embodying the freeform style of his contemporaries and the expressive aesthetic characteristic to the era, Hartung’s early works feature bold and calligraphic strokes of paint assembled onto colored grounds. >From 1960-80s, Hartung employed a breadth of newfound tools and mark-making techniques to apply pigment to his canvas. He used a compressed-air spray gun to create a unified ground with radiating swathes of color and other unconventional tools, such as tree branches or garden rakes, to mark his surfaces. Unlike his earlier works, the gestural marks on these mid-career paintings evince the physical exertion involved in their making. In these paintings from the 1970s, the effects of a rake’s teeth emphatically scraping the colored ground are palpable. Yet, amid the spraying, scraping and thrashing, the artist maintained incredible reign over his tools. The inherently unruly devices were governed to generate deliberate patterns, forms and expanses of color within an orderly composition. Adhering to an unwavering method of applying paint that predicated on disciplined mark-making, Hartung unleashed controlled bouts of impulse and emotion. Hartung’s brilliant interplay between technical control and stylistic freedom radically distinguished his work from that of his peers early in his career and continued through the end of his life. His artistic legacy can be found in the work of various artists that came after him, from the splattered marks of Sam Francis, to the brazen experimentation of Sigmar Polke and the systematic approach of Gerhard Richter. https://fiac.viewingrooms.com/fr/?utm_campaign=FIAC-21-EXP-INSC-INFO-OVR-Email-EN-Infos-VIP&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Eloqua&querytoken= https://fiac.viewingrooms.com/fr/?utm_campaign=FIAC-21-EXP-INSC-INFO-OVR-Email-EN-Infos-VIP&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Eloqua&querytoken= (top) T-1970-H30, 1970 - Oil on canvas - 44.8 x 57.5 inches (113.8 x 146.1 cm) (left ) T-1971-R16, 1971 - Oil on canvas - 44.8 x 57.5 inches (114 x 146.1 cm) (right) T-1971-H10, 1971 - Oil on canvas - 44.7 x 57.3 inches (113.5 x 145.5 cm) ** C U R R E N T E X H I B I T I O N ------------------------------------------------------------ A L E X A N D E R C A L D E R Blue and Yellow Among Reds, 1964 Nahmad Contemporary, New York Until March 31, 2021 Alexander Calder, Blue and Yellow among Reds, 1964 Sheet metal and wire. 78.75 x 157.5 inches (200 x 400 cm) Alexander Calder Blue and Yellow Among Reds (1964) Achieving a delicate formal beauty which belies its grand scale, Blue and Yellow Among Reds from 1964 comprises vibrant circular elements suspended gracefully in space. The exquisitely cascading components in this large-scale mobile extend over four meters in length yet are seemingly weightless. Communicating a sense of limitless kinetic possibility, the components shift and rotate to create infinite permutations of abstract forms in perfect equilibrium. Calder’s exacting and simple use of color—red, blue, yellow, black, and white—is typical of his output, and adheres to his ideas about the use of color not as a means of decoration or a representation of something in the real world, but rather as a means of highlighting the differing elements within the piece so that they could more aptly form a cohesive whole. One of the 20th century’s most innovative artists, Alexander Calder is unmatched in his ability to translate modest shapes, common materials and base colors into elegant arabesques of kinetic sculpture. Created at a particularly active period in his career, this dynamic work is a striking example of Calder’s iconic mobiles and his keen attention to scale, form, motion, and color. As Calder exclaimed, “People think monuments should come out of the ground, and never out of the ceiling, but mobiles can be monumental too.” Even though he was born in Philadelphia and attended the Art Students League in New York City, Calder had a strong bond with Europe and its artistic sensibilities. Frequently traveling across the Atlantic and even setting up studios in France, Calder interacted with luminaries of the European avant-garde, such as Jean Arp, Fernand Léger, Piet Mondrian and Marcel Duchamp. Bridging the world of the visionaries he met abroad with the East Coast artist movements thriving in the United States, Calder existed in both realms, yet stayed above the fray: he was sharply individual in his methods and materials. Grand, lively, and dynamic, Blue and Yellow Among Reds captures Calder’s spirited personality, brilliant imagination, and singular artistic output. NAHMAD CONTEMPORARY 980 MADISON AVE ⎮ NEW YORK ⎮ NY ⎮10075 [email protected] (mailto:[email protected]) +1 646 449 9118 Monday-Saturday, 10AM-6PM http://www.nahmadcontemporary.com/ https://www.instagram.com/nahmadcontemporary/?hl=en https://www.facebook.com/Nahmad-Contemporary-761104604029387/ https://www.twitter.com/Joe_Nahmad/ © Hans Hartung © 2021 Calder Foundation, New York / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.⁠ ============================================================ If you received this email in error or no longer wish to receive these mailings, you can click here to ** unsubscribe (https://nahmadcontemporary.us17.list-manage.com/unsubscribe?u=b70673086d081550990c36524&id=62f68f98d0&e=c39411af91&c=1c11373c1c)