The second edition of the Journal of Contemporary Painting will address the work and legacy of the French painter, Simon Hantaï (1922-2008) and is edited by Mick Finch, Laura Lisbon and Daniel Sturgis.
Simon Hantaï’s reputation in France 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. 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.
The Journal includes archival texts in the form of the first English translations by Philip Armstrong and Jennifer Branlat of correspondence between Hantai and Hubert Damish, Georges Didi-Huberman, Jean-Luc Nancy, François Rouan and from Hantaï himself. Alongside these translated texts stand three transcribed texts. A round- table and two interviews document the reflections of Daniel Buren, Éric de Chassey, Isabelle Monod-Fontaine and François Rouan; two artists and also long standing friends of Hantaï’s and two art historians, who have worked on significant exhibitions of Hantaï’s work. Similarly, a text by Anna Hantaï, Hantaï’s daughter and an art historian, originally published for the exhibition, Hantai, by the Ludwig Museum in Budapest, Hungary explores the extent of Hantaï’s ongoing practice during the period when he withdrew from the public.
For this edition we have commissioned a visual essay from the British painter Andy Harper which is accompanied by a text by the philosopher Robin McKay that further explores ideas of visual and conceptual mirroring and reproduction. Also as part of the issue’s interest in offering various receptions of Hantaï’s influence, several contemporary artists were invited to write a brief piece on Hantaï’s work including English painter, Stuart Elliot, Belgian artist, Amélie de Beauffort, and US painters, Joe Fyfe and Marjorie Welish.
JCP1.2 also includes reviews of An Appetite for Painting, Contemporary Painting 2000- 2014, at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Oslo, The Art of Dansaekhwa at the Kukje Gallery, Seoul, Christina Ramberg, at Glasgow International, Nasreen Mohamedi at Tate Liverpool and John Timberlake: We Are History at Beaconsfield, London.
The Journal of Contemporary Painting responds to the territory and practice of contemporary painting in its broadest sense, viewing painting as a context for discussion, exploring its sphere of history and influence, rather than as a medium specific debate. The JCP combines a thematic approach with an open call and is published twice a year by Intellect.
ISSN: 20526695 | Online ISSN: 20526709
First published in 2015 | 2 issues per volume
Editor
Rebecca Fortnum, (Middlesex University)
Editorial Assistant
Trish Scott
JCP@mdx.ac.uk
Associate Editors
Beth Harland (Lancaster University)
Mick Finch (University of the Arts, London, Central St Martins)
Daniel Sturgis (University of the Arts London, Camberwell)
