Among the abstract painters of the 20th century Hans Hartung occupies one of the first ranks. After figurative notions were visible in the early period of Hans Hartung's creation, the artist, obviously inspired by Expressionism, slowly attained abstraction since the early 1920s. After World War II he cultivated his style in, among others, the fruitful environment of the Nouvelle École de Paris. A massive and powerful stroke of the brush is characteristic of the paintings by Hans Hartung, which are based on a soft-glazed background, thus the abstract images develop an amazing spatial effect. Despite the seemingly liberal way of painting, his works from the 1950s are very elaborate compositions, but it was not before the 1960s that Hans Hartung attained an entirely spontaneous gestic expression in the truest sense of the Informel. Countless awards, honors and exhibitions are proof of Hans Hartung's artistic rank. The latest exhibition "Le grand geste!" (2010) took places in the Düsseldorf museum kunst palast.