Artprice by Artmarket: The Gagosian's Grand Projects for the Late Simon Hantaï (1922-2008)

PARIS,Oct. 14,2019 --Yesterday,13 October 2019,the Gagosian Gallery inaugurated its new space at Le Bourget on the outskirts of Paris with an exhibition dedicated to Simon Hantaï,whose estate the international gallery now represents worldwide. Titled LES NOIRS DU BLANC,LES BLANCS DU NOIR,the exhibition focuses on canvases and prints made between 1969 and 1997,years during which Simon Hantaï developed his folding (pliage) techniques.

Auction turnover on works by Simon Hantaï (2000-2018) - left,Larry Gagosian ©thierry Ehrmann - courtesy of Organ Museum / Abode of Chaos - right

thierry Ehrmann,founder/CEO of Artprice by Artmarket: "It is ironic that an artist who sought almost all his life to escape the Art Market should return eleven years after his death under the aegis of the most powerful gallery on the planet. No doubt the battle for the privilege of representing his estate was tough... and this time it's the Gagosian that won. It now has responsibility for giving global visibility to Hantaï's work which is much more complex than it appears. Because behind the warm and seductive colours,there is a unique and profoundly spiritual work".

Since his death in 2008,several galleries have exhibited Simon Hantaï's work in London and New York,and his prices have already increased considerably. However the Gagosian Gallery still sees enormous potential in Hantaï's market.

The first auction of an important Simon Hantaï work outside France dates back to 2017 when Sotheby's New York sold his Mariale m.d. 4 (1962) for $3,252,500. It was his third best auction result and confirmed the market's growing interest as it represented six times the amount fetched at Aguttes in Paris in June 2008 ($540,000) for the same canvas.

However... that New York sale was exceptional: nearly 90% of Simon Hantaï's auction turnover is hammered in France with his works primarily changing hands in Paris rather than New York,London or Hong Kong. This,of course,explains the potential that the major international galleries – and especially the Gagosian – see in managing Hantaï's succession.

In fact,Simon Hantaï's work has received relatively little exposure outside France,partly due to the artist himself,who after his exhibition at the Venice Biennale in 1982,decided to 'withdraw' from the Art Market. He did not show his work again until 1998,after much patient persuasion from his friend and gallerist Jean Fournier.

Émilie Ovaere-Corthay,director of the Jean Fournier Gallery: "Our gallery supported Hantaï's work throughout his life,and still does today. We respected his personal wishes,including his desire to withdraw from the artistic scene between 1982 and 1998,just when Jean Fournier opened a large space on Quincampoix Street in order to diffuse his work on a larger scale.

After his death in 2008,several Anglo-Saxon galleries expressed interest in Simon Hantaï: Paul Kasmin exhibited his work in New York in 2010,then Timothy Taylor in 2014 and the Mnuchin Gallery in 2015,each time in collaboration with the Jean Fournier gallery.

The big question is the availability of works for sale. The Gagosian will no doubt have access to major works,and it will also have a free hand to place them in important collections on a global scale,via its network of 13 galleries."

At auction,Simon Hantaï's 'best' canvases are those created when he started using his folding technique,particularly the series Mariale,Mur – Manteaux de la Vierge (1960-1962). The value of large formats (2m²) from this period currently ranges from $2 to $5 million. Canvases from the three series Meun (1967-1968),Etude (1969-1971) and Blanc (1973-1975) usually sell for close to a million dollars,although the smaller works (less than 50cm²) are still fetching less than $100,000 on average.

Émilie Ovaere-Corthay,again: "We tend to remember the large colored formats,the 'all over' patterns that elicit an immediate and physical relationship with the viewer. Their impact is close to the efficacy of the great American Abstract Expressionists.

However,it is important to remember that Simon Hantaï was primarily influenced by Surrealism when he arrived in Paris at the end of 1940. His roots are in fact literary,underpinned by a profound spirituality that grew over time.

The 'quest' for the management of artists' estates by the major international galleries has allowed the rediscovery of lesser-known artists,sometimes misunderstood in their time. But 'knowledge' of an œuvre,in the intellectual and emotional sense of the term,is not necessarily related to its diffusion on the market. These are two different things.

From their first meeting at the beginning of the 1950s until today,the gallery has kept correspondence between Jean Fournier and Simon Hantaï,and has meticulously recorded reproductions of his works. Today these archives,accessible to researchers,represent a solid and essential basis for the certification of his works and the redaction of his catalogue raisonné and that is why the Jean Fournier gallery contributes to a better knowledge of his work,in both a patrimonial and a prospective dimension at the same time".

As of the late 1990s,Simon Hantaï himself donated many works – representative of the major periods in his artistic career – to the Pompidou Center and the Ville de Paris Musée d'Art Moderne. Several other French museums,including the Fabre Museum in Montpellier and the CAPC in Bordeaux,have also integrated his work into their collections.

The MoMA and the National Gallery of Art in Washington both have a painting by Simon Hantaï,but in general his works are absent from major Anglo-Saxon collections. The primary role of the Gagosian Gallery will be to present this Franco-Hungarian artist outside Europe,and especially outside France,where his works have been regularly exhibited and have received plenty of attention from art historians and philosophers.

In L'étoilement (Conversation with Hantaï) published in 1998,Georges Didi-Huberman was moved to make the following touching observation which somehow captures the mystery of his painting: "Hantai is wary of beauty,I can feel it... it's in his DNA" .

The exhibition LES NOIRS DU BLANC,LES BLANCS DU NOIR at Le Bourget,Gagosian Gallery

From 13 Octobre 2019 until 14 March 2020 :

https://gagosian.com/exhibitions/2019/simon-hantai-les-noirs-du-blanc-les-blancs-du-noir/

Simon Hantaï's Archives : simonhantai.org

Galerie Jean Fournier : www.galerie-jeanfournier.com

Copyright 1987-2019 thierry Ehrmann www.artprice.com - www.artmarket.com

About Artmarket:

Artmarket.com is listed on Eurolist by Euronext Paris,SRD long only and Euroclear: 7478 - Bloomberg: PRC - Reuters: ARTF.

Discover Artmarket and its Artprice department on video: https://en.artprice.com/video

Artmarket and its Artprice department was founded in 1997 by its CEO,thierry Ehrmann. Artmarket and its Artprice department is controlled by Groupe Serveur,created in 1987.

See certified biography in Who's who ©:

https://imgpublic.artprice.com/img/wp/sites/11/2019/10/biographie_oct2019_WhosWho_thierryEhrmann.pdf

Artmarket is a global player in the Art Market with,among other structures,its Artprice department,world leader in the accumulation,management and exploitation of historical and current art market information in databanks containing over 30 million indices and auction results,covering more than 700,000 artists.

Artprice Images® allows unlimited access to the largest Art Market image bank in the world: no less than 180 million digital images of photographs or engraved reproductions of artworks from 1700 to the present day,commented by our art historians.

Artmarket with its Artprice department accumulates data on a permanent basis from 6300 Auction Houses and produces key Art Market information for the main press and media agencies (7,200 publications). Its 4.5 million 'members log in' users have access to ads posted by other members,a network that today represents the leading Global Standardized Marketplace® to buy and sell artworks at a fixed or bid price (auctions regulated by paragraphs 2 and 3 of Article L 321.3 of France's Commercial Code).

Artmarket with its Artprice department,has been awarded the State label "Innovative Company" by the Public Investment Bank (BPI) (for the second time in November 2018 for a new period of 3 years) which is supporting the company in its project to consolidate its position as a global player in the market art.

Artprice by Artmarket's 2018 Global Art Market Report published in March 2019: https://fr.artprice.com/artprice-reports/le-marche-de-lart-en-2018

Index of press releases posted by Artmarket with its Artprice department:

http://serveur.serveur.com/press_release/pressreleasefr.htm

Follow all the Art Market news in real time with Artmarket and its Artprice department on Facebook and Twitter:

https://www.facebook.com/artpricedotcom (4.5 million followers)

https://twitter.com/artmarketdotcom

https://twitter.com/artpricedotcom

Discover the alchemy and universe of Artmarket and its artprice department http: //web.artprice.com/video headquartered at the famous Organe Contemporary Art Museum "The Abode of Chaos" (dixit The New York Times): https://issuu.com/demeureduchaos/docs/demeureduchaos-abodeofchaos-opus-ix-1999-2013

https://www.facebook.com/la.demeure.du.chaos.theabodeofchaos999

(4 million followers)

https://vimeo.com/124643720

https://www.facebook.com/the.demeure.du.chaos.theabodeofchaos999

Contact Artmarket.com and its Artprice department

Contact ir@artprice

thierry Ehrmann,ir@artprice.com

Logo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1009603/Art_Market_logo.jpg

Photo - http://cusmail.com/res/2023/07-23/21/3740df26c46c254981a0ddc75f428a09.jpg