Hans Hartung, L/14, 1958, lithograph; recipient of the Grand Prix d’Honneur, 7th International Exhibition of Graphic Arts, Ljubljana, 1967.
The exhibition included seventy prints made between 1921 and 1966. Hans Hartung was a French painter of German descent known for his lyrical abstractions and involvement in the Art Informel movement. His characteristic paintings and prints (most often lithographs) were created with distinctive swirls, scribbles and streaks made by scratching, erasing and reapplying pigment. “The first and most important thing is to remain free, free in each line you undertake, in your ideas and in your political action, in your moral conduct,” he once stated. And free was also his graphic expression.