Simon Hantaï Editorial

Editorial for the Journal of Contemporary Painting Volume 1, Number 2 on Simon Hantaï.

Simon Hantaï’s reputation was established from the early 1960s, with regular exhibitions up until his withdrawal from the art world in 1982. His work had a consistent impact in France where he is regarded as a major post-war artist who initiated a crucial rethinking of painting in the wake of Pollock and Matisse, influencing most specifically the generation epitomized by the groups Buren, Mosset, Parmentier and Toroni and Supports/Surfaces. More recently, however, an exhibition at the Paul Kasmin Gallery in New York (2010) and a major retrospective at the Centre Pompidou in Paris (2013) have contributed to a growing interest in, and recognition of, Hantaï’s work outside of France. This issue of the Journal of Contemporary Painting is an intervention within this emerging reception.