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| Informalismo | |
|---|---|
| Name | Informalismo |
| Years | mid-20th century |
| Countries | Italy, France, Spain, Argentina |
| Movements | Abstract Expressionism, Art Informel, Tachisme |
Informalismo Informalismo denotes a mid-20th-century artistic tendency characterized by gestural abstraction, material experimentation, and rejection of academic figuration. Originating in postwar Europe and Latin America, it intersected with contemporaneous developments in Paris, Madrid, Rome, Buenos Aires, New York City, and Milan. Proponents engaged with debates unfolding around institutions such as the Salon de Mai, Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Tate Gallery, Museum of Modern Art, and Museo del Prado.
The movement emerged amid the aftermath of World War II, the cultural politics of the Cold War, and the intellectual ferment of circles around the UNESCO and the Congress for Cultural Freedom. Roots trace to antecedents such as Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, and the interwar experiments of Oswald Spengler-era discussions and the exhibitions at the Galerie Maeght and Galerie Rive Droite. Crosscurrents with Abstract Expressionism in New York City—as seen in the careers of figures affiliated with Downtown Gallery and Institute of Contemporary Art (Philadelphia)—shaped reception. Critical forums in journals like Cahiers d'Art, L'Oeil, Domus, and Realidad offered platforms for manifestos and polemics.
Prominent European and Latin American artists associated with the tendency include Alberto Burri, Lucio Fontana, Jean Dubuffet, Antoni Tàpies, Matta, Enrico Baj, Emilio Vedova, Antoni Clavé, Antonio Saura, Eduardo Chillida, Piero Manzoni, Giorgio Morandi (late reception), Jean Fautrier, Pierre Soulages, Georges Mathieu, Wifredo Lam, Alejandro Xul Solar, Lucian Freud (indirectly), Roberto Matta, Francis Bacon (contemporaneous resonance), Giorgio de Chirico (retrospective influence), Manolo Millares, Antoni Bonet, Jorge de la Vega, Enrique Tábara, Francisco Rosario, Gino De Dominicis, Armando Reverón, Emiliano di Cavalcanti, Hélio Oiticica, Lygia Clark, Yves Klein, Sam Francis, Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, Willem de Kooning, Helen Frankenthaler, Karel Appel, Asger Jorn, Jean-Michel Atlan, Jean-Paul Riopelle, Zao Wou-Ki, Friedel Dzubas, Man Ray, Max Ernst, Roberto Sebastian Matta Echaurren, Rufino Tamayo, Isabel Samaras, Antonio Berni, Raoul Ubac, Jean Hélion, Óscar Domínguez, Eugenio Granell.
Artists emphasized materiality, improvisation, and the embrace of chance through methods linked to the studios and workshops of Peggy Guggenheim, Atelier 17, and Studio d'Arte Moderna. Techniques included violent gestural brushwork connected to practices by Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning, surface scoring recalling Lucio Fontana and Alberto Burri, assemblage akin to Jean Dubuffet and Robert Rauschenberg, and staining associated with Helen Frankenthaler. Theoretical framing drew on critics and philosophers active in forums such as Tel Quel, Artforum, Der Spiegel cultural pages, and essays by figures linked to the Frankfurt School and the New York School.
Key exhibitions that propagated the movement include shows at the Salon des Réalités Nouvelles, the Galerie Maeght, the Biennale di Venezia, the São Paulo Art Biennial, the Venice Biennale, and retrospectives at institutions like the Guggenheim Museum and the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía. Notable works appearing in these contexts were pieces by Alberto Burri (the Sacchi series), Jean Fautrier (Hostages series), Antoni Tàpies (matter paintings), Lucio Fontana (Concetti spaziali), Jean Dubuffet (Hourloupe), Pierre Soulages (Outrenoir canvases), Piero Manzoni (Achrome series), Enrico Baj (collages), and assemblages installed at the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes (Buenos Aires) and Museo de Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires. Landmark exhibitions that crossed continents involved curators and collectors associated with James Johnson Sweeney, Carlo Ludovico Ragghianti, Lionello Venturi, Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler, and Théodore Rousseau-era collectors.
Contemporary critics debated Informalismo in pages of Le Monde, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Corriere della Sera, El País, The New York Times, and The Guardian. Supporters linked it to existentialist literature by Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus and to poetic networks around Paul Éluard and André Breton; detractors compared it unfavorably with figurative currents associated with Francis Bacon and Lucian Freud. Over succeeding decades its material experiments influenced movements and artists affiliated with Arte Povera, Neo-Expressionism, Minimalism (in reaction), Conceptual Art (as foil), and later generations exhibited at institutions like the Centre Pompidou, Tate Modern, MoMA PS1, and the Whitney Museum of American Art.
Informalismo overlapped with related tendencies: French Art Informel, Tachisme, Italian Spatialism, Spanish El Paso group, Argentine Nueva Figuración, and Latin American currents such as Arte Concreto and Constructivismo. Correspondences appear with the Gutai Group in Japan, the CoBrA movement, and North American Abstract Expressionism. Regional variants involved local networks such as the Grupo de los Trece in Argentina, the El Paso Group in Madrid, and exhibition platforms like the Galería Denise René and Galleria del Cavallino.
Category:Art movements