Radical, Hantaï renounces composition, all representation and all subjectivity and goes as far as possible on the side of the involuntary. 

The canvas is folded and bound more or less tightly, then painted blind.

The colors are fixed where the surface is accessible and the final work is only revealed once unfolded. The process reduces the part of the painter to very little, who only remains in control of the chromatism, the density of the material and the formats.

In fact it is inspired by the "tie and dye" technique literally "tie and dip" used in West Africa for centuries

and to which he added painting, scratching, repainting, folding..

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He strips the painting of its symbolic and psychological meanings as well as the uses of the trade in order to retain only the purest materiality. Hantaï describes his paintings as "rags".