The New York Times carries a prominent obituary of the Hungarian-born French painter who disappeared from the art world 20 years ago:

Born in Hungary, Mr. Hantaï was a major figure in European art from the 1950s onward. He was known in particular for abstract, often huge canvases that crackled with bold, saturated color punctuated by unfilled areas of pure white. Their singular appearance resulted from a method of folding and tying the canvas before applying paint, a process known as pliage, which Mr. Hantaï developed in the early 1960s. [ . . . ]

Mr. Hantaï’s work is in the permanent collections of the Georges Pompidou Center in Paris and other major

European museums. In 2005, one of his paintings, “Mariale M.A.4 Red,” from 1960, sold at auction in Paris for 560,000 Euros — more than $800,000 at today’s exchange rate. His work is less well known in the United States, though it is in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, among others.

Website for Simon Hentai (Paul Rodgers Gallery)

Simon Hantaï, Painter of Silences, Dies at 85 (New York Times)