The Hungarian-born French painter Simon Hantaï (1922-2008) is best known for abstract, large-format works produced using pliage: the painting of a crumpled, gathered, or systematically pleated canvas that the artist then unfolds and stretches for exhibition. In her study of this profoundly influential artist, Molly Warnock presents a persuasive historical account of his work, his impact on a younger generation of French artists, and the genesis and development of the practice of pliage over time. Simon Hantaï and the Reserves of Painting covers the entirety of Hantaï's expansive oeuvre, from his first aborted experiments with folding around 1950 to his post-pliage experiments with digital scanning and printing. Throughout, Warnock analyzes the artist's relentlessly searching studio practice in light of his no less profound engagement with developments in philosophy, psychoanalysis, and critical theory. Engaging both Hantaï's art and writing to support her argument and paying particular attention to his sustained interrogation of religious painting in the West, Warnock shows how Hantaï's work evinces a complicated mixture of intentionality and contingency. Appendixes provide English translations of two major texts by the artist, "A Plantaneous Demolition" and "Notes, Deliberately Confounding, Accelerating, and the Like for a 'Reactionary,' Nonreducible Avant-Garde." Original and insightful, this important new book is a central reference for the life, art, and theories of one of the most significant and exciting artists of the twentieth century. It will appeal to art historians and students of modernism, especially those interested in the history of abstraction, materiality and Surrealism, theories of community, and automatism and making.

Simon Hantaï and the Reserves of Painting (Refiguring Modernism)

Arts & Photography

Warnock, Molly

History & Criticism

Penn State University Press

A major figure in French abstraction of the late 20th century, Martin Barré (1924-1993) probed the fundamental parameters of painting for five decades. During the last 15 years, his work has received increasing attention in the United States. For Transatlantique, Molly Warnock brings together six American artists who share their invaluable perspectives on this decisive work.

Martin Barré – Transatlantique

ER.Publishing

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Books by Warnock, Molly

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Warnock, Molly. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Simon Hantaï and the Reserves of Painting (Refiguring Modernism)

Martin Barré – Transatlantique