Tabula

The Tabulas series, the first of which began in 1972 and the second in 1980, mark a technical evolution in the folding technique, as the artist ties knots in the canvas according to a simple geometric pattern. The result is a grid that is both rigorous in principle and approximate in execution: the edges of each square are ‘wavy’, and some are slightly streaked with white residue.

In the first series, of which Tabula (1976) is a monumental example (nearly six metres long), the relatively small squares bring the principle of colour division into sharp relief. In the Tabula works dated 1980, which belong to the second series, the squares appear as pictures within the picture, and the traces of the knots are more easily identifiable. The Latin word "tabula" means both a plank, a writing tablet, a noticeboard, a will, a votive tablet and a gaming table. From this derives the word ‘apron’, which originally referred to the cloth covering a table.

For Hantaï, the apron is associated with the memory of his mother: the Tabulas take up this decorative motif but, above all, constitute an extension of the idea of the Virgin’s mantle—that is, the covering and the symbol of the secret of procreation.