Art Informel

Art Informel
Jiménez-Balaguer · CC BY-SA 3.0 · source
Name	Art Informel
Years	1943–1960s
Countries	France, Italy, Spain
Movements	Tachisme, Lyrical Abstraction, Matter Painting

Art Informel

Art Informel emerged as a postwar painting tendency in mid-20th-century France that emphasized spontaneous gesture, materiality, and anti-formal composition. It reacted against academic Académie des Beaux-Arts traditions and paralleled developments in United States and Japan, intersecting with notable exhibitions and institutions in Paris, Milan, and Barcelona. Leading figures associated through networks of galleries, salons, and journals included artists, critics, and curators who also participated in events linked to Salon des Réalités Nouvelles, Peggy Guggenheim Collection, and Venice Biennale.

Origins and Definition

Art Informel originated in post-World War II Western Europe as critics and artists sought terms to describe non-geometric, improvisatory painting. Critics such as Michel Tapié and dealers linked practices across Parisian venues like Galerie Maeght and Galerie Drouin to movements named by other commentators including Tachisme proponents and Italian counterparts in Milan Triennale contexts. The designation encompassed diverse practitioners from circles around Jean Dubuffet, Pierre Soulages, and Wols to younger painters associated with École de Paris, reflecting dialog with collectors such as Peggy Guggenheim and institutions like Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris.

Historical Context and Influences

The movement developed amid reconstruction in France, debates in periodicals like Cahiers d'Art and Art et Liberté, and intellectual currents stemming from existentialist writers such as Jean-Paul Sartre and philosophers linked to Simone de Beauvoir. Visual precedents included works by Jackson Pollock, Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, and Willem de Kooning, alongside European forerunners like Jean Fautrier, Alberto Burri, and Antoni Tàpies. Political and cultural institutions—French Fourth Republic, Comité National des Arts Plastiques, and Ministry of Culture (France) initiatives—affected exhibition opportunities, while collectors including Samuel Beckett patrons and galleries such as Kootz Gallery and Galerie Maeght facilitated transatlantic exchange. Contact with movements such as Surrealism, Dada, Existentialism, and Abstract Expressionism shaped theory and practice.

Major Artists and Movements

Key practitioners associated in various degrees included Jean Dubuffet, Pierre Soulages, Jean Fautrier, Wols, Antoni Tàpies, Alberto Burri, Lucio Fontana, Enrico Castellani, Giorgio Morandi (late reception), Zao Wou-Ki, Georges Mathieu, Jean-Paul Riopelle, Suzanne Valadon (historical references), Hans Hartung, Emilio Vedova, Karel Appel, Jean-Michel Atlan, Georges Mathieu, Mireille Eid (lesser known linkage), Jean Le Moal, Jean Messagier, Édouard Pignon, Jean Fautrier, Philippe Labrouche, Alfred Manessier, Georges Mathieu, Nicolas de Staël, Pierre Alechinsky, Willem de Kooning, Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, Clyfford Still, and Italian contemporaries around Spatialism and Arte Povera exchanges such as Piero Manzoni. Movements overlapping with Art Informel included Tachisme, Lyrical Abstraction, Matter Painting, and strands later discussed alongside Neo-Expressionism.

Techniques and Materials

Practitioners favored gestural application, spontaneous scraping, and impasto employing unconventional supports and found materials like burlap, sand, tar, glue, and industrial pigments. Techniques drew from mixed-media experiments of Alberto Burri with sacchi, the scorched and stitched surfaces of Lucio Fontana developments, and the layered scraping seen in works by Jean Fautrier and Antoni Tàpies. Artists sourced materials via suppliers linked to workshops in Paris, Milan, and Madrid, and sometimes collaborated with ateliers associated with Atelier 17 and print studios such as Domus-linked workshops. Critical discourse referenced conservation challenges noted by curators at Musée Picasso, Centre Pompidou, and Tate Modern when treating fragile matter paintings and unconventional fixatives.

Key Works and Exhibitions

Major exhibitions framed reception: postwar shows at Venice Biennale (late 1940s–1950s) and group shows at Galerie Maeght, Galerie Jeanne Bucher, and Galerie Drouin; thematic displays organized by critics like Michel Tapié who curated international surveys and catalogues promoting painters to collectors such as Peggy Guggenheim and institutions like Museum of Modern Art. Notable works often cited include canvases by Wols displayed at Galerie Nina Dausset, textured pieces by Jean Fautrier shown at Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, monochrome interventions by Pierre Soulages at Centre Georges Pompidou, and material sculptures by Alberto Burri exhibited at Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna. Retrospectives at Tate Modern, Museo Reina Sofía, Guggenheim Bilbao, and touring exhibitions across United States and Japan renewed scholarly attention in later decades.

Critical Reception and Legacy

Contemporaneous criticism ranged from enthusiastic advocacy by figures like Michel Tapié and collectors including Peggy Guggenheim to scepticism from commentators at Le Figaro and conservative juries within the Venice Biennale. Subsequent art-historical assessment positioned the movement within transnational dialogues connecting Abstract Expressionism, Surrealism, and later Arte Povera and Informalism debates in Spanish and Latin American contexts tied to artists such as Manuel Millares and Roberto Matta. Legacy institutions preserving works include Musée National d'Art Moderne, Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna, Museo Reina Sofía, and university collections at Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and The Metropolitan Museum of Art, informing conservation, scholarship, and market interest evident at auction houses like Sotheby's and Christie's.

Category:Art movements