ART–MIN–HAN
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Simon Hantaï
Gestural Lineages
Fold as meditation
ART–MIN–HAN
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Fold as meditation
Simon Hantaï
ART–MIN–HAN
Fold as meditation
Index Code:
ART–MIN–HAN
Orgin:
Bia, Hungary / Paris, France
Field Notes:
fold as meditation · repetition as discovery · gesture as structure
Defining Moment:
Early 1950s — fold as meditation; duration became method

Simon Hantaï

( 
1922–2008
 )
see-mon ahn-tay

Hantaï built a world where gesture became repetition.

Folding and unfolding his canvases, he transformed accident into order.

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In his world, the crease is prayer.

How does folding generate composition here?
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Folding is customarily applied as a method of spatial arrangement; in Simon Hantaï’s work, it functions structurally to generate composition by determining paint distribution. Gesture is displaced, chance intervenes, and structure emerges across the surface.

Position

Process as Form

The method of making defines the structure. Repetition, accumulation, or procedure becomes the visible logic of the work.

In Simon Hantaï’s work, this approach appears where folding generates composition.
Constructed Surfaces
Surfaces are built through layering, joining, and controlled fabrication.
Gestural Lineages
Gesture is transmitted as a disciplined method across generations of practice.
Gesture
Gesture functions as structure through disciplined, repeatable action.
Material
Material behavior governs form through weight, resistance, and constraint.
Structure
Structure holds the work through rules, joins, and controlled relationships between parts.
Art
Form operates as a site for material, perceptual, and conceptual inquiry.
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Context

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The Atlas

By Structural Focus

ⓘ
How are these related?
Quiet Modernism relates practices through how form is organized rather than how it appears. Connections emerge through shared structural conditions — such as repetition, constraint, spatial organization, material behavior, or duration — even when outcomes differ.

A single grouping may reflect multiple overlapping structural concerns.
Gerhard Richter
image as uncertainty
Mark Bradford
city as material

In Dialogue