10. 10AR HANS HARTUNG (1904-1989) HH6170 1948 Signed and dated lower left Oil and pastel on paper Getekend en gedateerd linktsonder Oil and pastel on paper 49 x 74 cm Provenance / Herkomst Private collection / Privécollectie, Belgium This work is listed in the archives under number HH6170 This work is included in the catalogue raisonné of the works of Hans Hartung We would like to thank Mr Hervé Coste de Champeron of the Hartung - Bergman Foundation for confirming its authenticity. A certificate of authenticity will be given to the buyer. A pioneering figure in lyrical abstraction, he is recognised as the father of tachism. He was at the origin of gestural abstraction, which he helped to impose on the French art scene after 1945. Hartung was born in Leipzig in 1904 into a family of doctors and amateur musicians, from whom he inherited a musical sensibility and a curiosity that ranged from the Baroque to twelve-tone music, a constant echo in his painting. In addition to the apparent spontaneity of his gestural abstraction, recognisable by its boldness and almost calligraphic quality, rationalism played an equally important role in his style, due to his early interest in the relationship between aesthetics and mathematics, in particular the harmony of the golden ratio. Hartung does not name his works. The title consists of the initial of the technique, canvas, drawing, engraving or photograph followed by the four digits of the year of execution and separated from its serial number by a horizontal dash.