Hans Hartung was one of the few artists who spent their entire life working in an Informel manner. He began studying philosophy and art history in 1924 at the university of Leipzig, but soon changed to the Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Leipzig and then Dresden. He continued his training in 1928 with the painter Max Doerner in Munich. This period is reflected in his oeuvre in spontaneous, sketchy line compositions in which Hartung was guided by the inspiration of chance and analysed the tension between the areas of colour and the lines.

After a lengthy stay on the Balearic island Menorca Hartung settled in Paris in 1932. Here he met Kandinsky, Mondrian, Miró and Calder and exhibited works at the "Salon des Surindépendants". At the beginning of the war Hartung joined the Foreign Legion and returned to Paris in 1945 with severe injuries.
"In my opinion the painting which is called abstract is none of the "Isms" of which there have been so many lately, it is neither a "style" nor an "epoch" in art history, but merely a new means of expression, a different human language - one which is more direct than that of earlier painting". (Hans Hartung)
(http://www.hans-hartung.com/)