Simon Hanta (born 7 December 1922, Bia, Hungary died in Paris, 12 September 2008; took French nationality in 1966) is a painter generally associated with abstract art. After studying at the Budapest School of Fine Art, he travelled through Italy on foot and moved to France in 1948. Andre Breton wrote the preface to his first exhibition catalogue in Paris, but in 1955 Hanta broke with the surrealist group over Breton's refusal to accept any similarity between the surrealist technique of automatic writing and Jackson Pollock's methods of action painting. In 1960, Hanta developed his technique of "pliage" (folding): the canvas is folded and scrunched, then doused with colour, and unfolded, leaving apparent blank sections of the canvas interrupted by vibrant splashes of colour. He stated: "The pliage developed out of nothing. It was necessary to simply put myself in the place of someone who had seen nothing... in the place of the canvas. You could fill the folded canvas without knowing where the edge was. You don't know where things stop. You could even go further, and paint with your eyes closed." Starting in 1960, Hanta ranged his works in series, some very white, others full of colour (subtle shades or vibrant).