Unfolding Color : Simon Hantai

A comprehensive monograph presenting Hantaï’s work as a sumptuous celebration of colour

Accompanying an exhibition at Museum Frieder Burda, Baden-Baden, Germany, this handsome book features work spanning four decades and provides a broad overview of Simon Hantaï's visionary output.

Simon Hantaï (1922–2008) is among the most important representatives of international postwar modernism. In 1948, the Hungarian artist emigrated to Paris, where he soon moved within the circles of the emerging avant-garde. After an initial Surrealist phase, he turned to Art Informel painting in the 1950s while engaging intensively with the work of Jackson Pollock. The year 1960 marks a turning point in Hantaï’s work: from that moment on, he concentrated his radically experimental research on “pliage comme méthode”—works in which he covered the folded canvas with oil or acrylic paint to create luminous patterns of chance. In 1980, Hantaï was awarded the Grand Prix National des Arts Plastiques; two years later, he represented his adopted homeland at the Venice Biennale. 

The book examines his life and work and his contribution to the development of international postwar abstraction.

Exhibition:  Museum Frieder Burda in Baden-Baden (15 August 2026 to 10 January 2027)

Details

• Author: Daniel Zamani, artistic director of the Museum Frieder Burda in Baden-Baden.
• Hardcover: 180 pages | 171 illustrations
• Date published: October 2026
• Language: English
• ISBN: 9783777447032
• Product Dimensions: 29.7 x 24.6  cm