Etching, 1978

Publisher : Editions Regard (Paris)

Printer : Lacourière et Frélaut (Paris)

Catalog : RMM 592

43.00 cm. x 32.50 cm. | 16.93 in. x 12.8 in. (paper)

34.50 cm. x 24.50 cm. | 13.58 in. x 9.65 in. (image)

Part of the collection of six elegies by Léopold Sédar Senghor entitled "Les Élégies majeures"

Poet, essayist and President of Senegal (from 1960 to 1980), Léopold Sédar Senghor (1909-2001) also created many institutions for the defense of the arts from his African contemporaries: theater, art or dance school, festivals. He collaborated with great names of modern art to illustrate his texts, including Hans Hartung.

With this etching, Hartung illustrates the elegy that Senghor dedicated to his wife, Colette. He initiates his poem on the waters of Senegal. The movements created by the winds (the Trade Winds) sing of the love that unites them, as the last stanzas conclude so well:

"And suddenly, on the terrace of Poponguine, you turned over
towards me your eyes of sea
And sang the trade winds in the flowering of our joys."

This elegy meets here the characteristic gesture of Hartung. Straight and curved lines, horizontal and vertical, collide to make visible the tumult created by the Trade Winds. The rapid and fine lines spontaneously draw the path they take. The artist opts for the effectiveness of black, drawn on a bluish background. The power of the work lies in the duality between light and shadow and the tension between order and chaos, mastered to perfection. Through her sense of drama, the artist sublimates the essence of the poem, i.e. the subtropical winds, metaphors used to describe the strong bond between the poet and his wife.

Very good condition
Handsigned by the artist in pencil
Certificate of authenticity

Ref : LCD5557