Simon Hantai//Spaces Between

Simon Hantaï: Étude, 1969, oil on canvas, 103 1⁄8 by 89 3⁄4  inches; at Paul Kasmin

Simon Hantaï (1922-2008) was born in Hungary and moved to France in 1948. In the early 1960s, wishing to increase the degree of both chance and objectivity in his work, he developed his signature technique of dripping, splashing or pouring color onto large pieces of canvas that had been systematically folded and knotted. When unfolded, the sheets of canvas, like tie-dyed garments, were left with blank unstained areas that interrupted the fields of color, forming patterns or random configurations. Hantaï's approach to abstract painting had significant influence on contemporaries such as Claude Viallat, Daniel Dezeuze and Noël Dolla of the Supports/Surfaces movement as well as the group BMPT (Daniel Buren, Olivier Mosset, Michel Parmentier, Niele Toroni). (source)