Simon Hantaï: Azzurro

This book was published on the occasion of Simon Hantaï: Azzurro at Gagosian, Rome. Curated by Anne Baldassari, the exhibition focused on the significance of blue in the artist’s practice, illuminating his affinity with Italy and the influence on his work of its classical painting tradition. Azzurro featured work from throughout Hantaï’s career and included many paintings produced using his characteristic pliage (folding) technique, in which a canvas is crumpled and knotted, painted over, and then unfolded to reveal a pattern of alternations between pigment and ground.

Housed in a custom-made hardcover case, the publication includes a large-format, saddle-stitched book featuring “Azzurro Blue,” an essay by Baldassari, as well as color reproductions of the works in the exhibition and archival photographs of Hantaï in his studio and at home. The case also contains a double-sided folded poster with Tabula (1976)—one of several large-scale gridded works in blue that dominated the Rome gallery’s ovoid main room—on one side and color illustrations documenting twenty-seven works from the exhibition on the reverse.