arrested for seven months by the French police. After they learned he was a painter, he was put in a red cell in an attempt to disturb his vision. After being released he rejoined the Legion to fight in North Africa, losing a leg in a battle near Belfort. He earned French citizenship in 1945, and was awarded the Croix de Guerre. In 1947, in Paris he had his first solo exhibition. By the late 1950s, he had achieved recognition for his gestural paintings, which were nearly monochromatic and characterized by configurations of long rhythmical brushstrokes or scratches. In 1960, he was awarded the International Grand Prix for painting at the Venice Biennale. In 1957, Hans Hartung was the first painter to receive the Rubens Prize of the City of Siegen. Hartung's freewheeling abstract paintings set influential precedents for many younger American painters of the 1960s, making him an important forerunner of American Lyrical Abstraction of the 1960s and 1970s. He was featured in the 1963 film documentary School of Paris: (5 Artists at Work) by American filmmaker Warren Forma. In 1957, Hartung and Anna-Eva Bergman remarried. He died on 7 December 1989, in Antibes, France. See also Tachisme School of Paris L'Art Informel Union des Artistes Allemandes Libres Notes References La mort de Hans Hartung Le peintre, pionnier puis classique de l'" abstraction ", est mort, vendredi 8 décembre, à l'âge de quatre-vingt-cinq ans, Le Monde. Lundi 11 décembre 1989, p. 1. accessed on October 8, 2006. Müller-Yao, Marguerite Hui: Der Einfluß der Kunst der chinesischen Kalligraphie auf die westliche informelle Malerei, Diss. Bonn, Köln 1985. Müller-Yao, Marguerite: Informelle Malerei und chinesische Kalligrafie, in: Informel, Begegnung und Wandel, (hrsg von Heinz Althöfer, Schriftenreihe des Museums am Ostwall; Bd. 2), Dortmund 2002, Rolf Wedewer: Die Malerei des Informel. Weltverlust und Ich-Behauptung, Deutscher Kunstverlag, München, 2007. External links Hans-Hartung.com Hans Hartung – Britannica.com The Artists.org – Hans Hartung 1904 births 1989 deaths Abstract expressionist artists Cubist artists 20th-century French painters 20th-century German male artists French male painters 20th-century German painters German male painters Modern painters Artists from Leipzig School of Paris Painters from Paris Soldiers of the French Foreign Legion Recipients of the Croix de Guerre 1939–1945 (France) French military personnel of World War II Members of the Académie des beaux-arts Art Informel and Tachisme painters French amputees Emigrants from Nazi Germany to France Knights Commander of the Order of Merit