- Paintings, 1968–1981
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Born in Hungary in 1922, Simon Hantaï moved to France in 1949 from where he established himself as one of Europe’s leading abstract painters. He died in 2008 at 85. In the 1960s, he developed a series of paintings on folded canvas. His “folding method” resulted in bold gestures of color that contrasted with the stark neutrality revealed by the unprimed sections of canvas when unfolded and stretched after painting. The Centre Georges Pompidou featured his work in a 1976 survey exhibition, which was followed by the Pompidou’s posthumous 2013 retrospective of Hantaï. Hantaï represented France in the 1982 Venice Biennale after which he secluded himself throughout the 1980s and early 1990s in protest of the art world’s degeneration. His works are featured in this issue of diacritics in recognition of his subsequent collaborations with Jean-Luc Nancy that began with Nancy’s invitation to create the frontispiece for Jacques Derrida’s book, Le toucher, Jean-Luc Nancy (2000). Hantaï became so enthused by the project that Derrida’s book appeared with a series of black and white photographs of the artist’s “travaux de lecture.” Hantaï then agreed for Nancy to publish their subsequent correspondence, which appeared in 2001 as La connaissance des textes: Lecture d’un manuscrit illisible (Correspondances) with the color plates of Hantai’s work on Derrida/ Nancy and a closing letter written by Derrida to the two interlocutors.