Informel

Informel
Name	Informel
Years	1940s–1960s
Countries	France; Germany; Italy; United States; Japan; Belgium; Netherlands; Spain; Switzerland; Austria; Poland; Czechoslovakia; Yugoslavia; Hungary; Argentina; Brazil

Informel Informel was an avant-garde postwar art movement associated with gestural abstraction, material experiment, and anti-figurative practices that emerged across France, Germany, and Italy in the 1940s and 1950s, intersecting with developments in the United States and Japan. It reacted to the aftermath of World War II, the trauma of the Holocaust, and the political landscapes of the Cold War era, engaging with contemporaneous currents around the Paris Salons, the Venice Biennale, and the discourse shaped by critics and curators at institutions like the Musée National d'Art Moderne, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Kunsthalle Düsseldorf. The movement overlapped with movements and figures associated with Abstract Expressionism, Tachisme, Art Informel, Gutai Art Association, and the CoBrA group.

Definition and Origins

Informel described a loosely connected set of practices emphasizing spontaneity, material autonomy, and rejection of geometric order promoted earlier by Bauhaus-influenced circles and by proponents of Constructivism such as Vladimir Tatlin and Naum Gabo. The term gained currency alongside writings by critics and theorists active in the milieu of the Salon des Réalités Nouvelles, Galerie Maeght, and publications like Cahiers d'Art, where debates involved figures linked to André Breton, Michel Tapié, and Jean Dubuffet. Its intellectual lineage drew on philosophies and writers including Martin Heidegger, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, and Georges Bataille, as well as the poetic avant-garde around Surrealism and practitioners associated with Dada such as Marcel Duchamp.

Key Artists and Figures

Key proponents and associated artists included Jean Fautrier, Jean Dubuffet, Willem de Kooning, Lucio Fontana, Alberto Burri, Antoni Tàpies, Jean-Paul Riopelle, and Hans Hartung. Critics and theorists who championed or critiqued the movement included Michel Tapié, Rodolfo Aricò, and curators from Peggy Guggenheim Collection and the Kunstmuseum Basel. Other notable figures and contemporaries who intersected with Informel practices were Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, Sam Francis, Emilio Vedova, Pierre Soulages, Zao Wou-Ki, Tetsumi Kudo, Yves Klein, Arshile Gorky, Aleksandr Rodchenko, Antoni Clavé, Georges Mathieu, Jean Fautrier, Jean Dubuffet, Friedel Dzubas, and Friedrich Vordemberge-Gildewart.

Stylistic Characteristics and Techniques

Practitioners favored gestural brushwork, textured impasto, and use of unconventional substrates and binders such as burlap, tar, resin, and sackcloth, echoing material experiments seen in works by Alberto Burri and Antoni Tàpies. Surface abrasion, scraping, puncturing, and collage aligned with actions performed by artists associated with the Gutai Art Association and the CoBrA group, while the emphasis on automatism invoked techniques discussed by André Breton and manifest in the work of Max Ernst. The palette ranged from the raw earthy tones of Jean Dubuffet to high-contrast blacks favored by Pierre Soulages and the chromatic approaches of painters like Zao Wou-Ki and Hans Hofmann. Techniques such as squeegeeing, dripping, and staining echoed methods used by Jackson Pollock and were adapted by European practitioners in site-specific installations at venues like the Venice Biennale and Documenta.

Historical Development and Regional Variations

In France, centers such as Paris, the Salon des Indépendants, and galleries like Galerie Rive Droite fostered Tachisme and Informel tendencies exemplified by Jean Dubuffet and Pierre Soulages. In Germany, postwar reconstruction and debates at institutions like Kunsthalle Düsseldorf and exhibitions curated by figures in Berlin produced a distinct German Informel with artists such as Wols and Karl Otto Götz. In Italy, practitioners including Lucio Fontana and Alberto Burri combined Arte Povera antecedents with Spatialist proposals discussed at gatherings involving Enrico Baj and Piero Manzoni. The United States saw parallel developments in New York and galleries like Stable Gallery where transatlantic exchanges occurred between Clyfford Still, Franz Kline, and visiting Europeans. In Japan, groups including the Gutai Art Association and artists like Saburo Murakami adapted Informel ideas within avant-garde performances and mixed-media works. Regional centers such as Amsterdam, Antwerp, Barcelona, Warsaw, and Buenos Aires each produced local variants influenced by exhibitions at the Venice Biennale, São Paulo Art Biennial, and interactions with collectors like Peggy Guggenheim and Paul Getty.

Critical Reception and Influence

Reception ranged from enthusiastic championing by critics like Michel Tapié and curators at Musée National d'Art Moderne to skepticism from conservative critics and commentators associated with institutions like the Royal Academy of Arts and the Académie des Beaux-Arts. Informel influenced later movements including Arte Povera, Minimalism (as a point of contrast), Neo-Expressionism, and postwar material practices by artists associated with Anselm Kiefer, Jannis Kounellis, and Robert Rauschenberg. Its impact extended to collectors and dealers such as Alexander Iolas, Giorgio Franchetti, and patrons who shaped market reception through exhibitions at Tate Modern, Centre Pompidou, and regional museums.

Major Works and Exhibitions

Major works and exhibitions that defined the discourse included solo shows and group exhibitions at the Venice Biennale (postwar editions), the São Paulo Art Biennial, Documenta in Kassel, and retrospectives at the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Tate Modern, and Museum of Modern Art. Signature works by artists associated with the movement include canvases and material experiments by Jean Fautrier and Alberto Burri, the Cut Canvases of Lucio Fontana, the monochromes of Pierre Soulages, and mixed-media assemblies by Antoni Tàpies and Jean Dubuffet. Important exhibitions and catalogues from galleries such as Galerie Maeght, Galerie Beyeler, and Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna helped codify the movement's reputation and transmitted its aesthetics across networks of museums, critics, and collectors from Paris to New York and beyond.

Category:Art movements