Stéphane Bordarier on Simon Hantaï's Retrospective: Pliage, Châssis, and the Legacy of Pollock and Matisse

In a 2013 essay for artpress, painter Stéphane Bordarier reflects on the Simon Hantaï retrospective at Centre Pompidou (through September 2, 2013). Bordarier, who first encountered Hantaï's Tabulas at the Abbaye de Sénanque in summer 1981, examines the artist's method of pliage (folding) and the crucial question of the châssis (stretcher). He notes that early Tabulas were presented unstretched, pinned directly to the wall, giving them a fragile, dancing quality that challenged traditional painting. Later, Hantaï insisted on mounting them on stretchers, partly to distance his work from the Supports/Surfaces movement. Bordarier argues that Hantaï's use of unstretched canvas was not economic but a deliberate choice to foreground process, as seen in his studio photographs and Jean-Michel Meurice's 1977 film. The essay also explores Hantaï's conflicted relationship with his predecessors: Pollock and Matisse. Bordarier observes that the Mariales combine a Pollock-like dripping with folding, and that the Meuns and Tabulas exhibit controlled forms reminiscent of Matisse. He interprets the late Laissées (1981-1995) as a re-composition of fragments from earlier Tabulas, bringing Hantaï closer to Pollock's late figurative drippings like Portrait and a Dream (1953). Bordarier praises the retrospective for revealing the tragic, confrontational nature of Hantaï's oeuvre, which constantly seeks to digest and overcome its influences.