Art Informel

About

In Paris after the Second World War, several painters turned away from both geometric abstraction and conventional composition. Jean Fautrier built his Hostages series (1943–45) from thick, pale paste, heads and bodies barely emerging; Wols filled small sheets with nervous webs of line and stain. The critic Michel Tapié grouped such work under the idea of an art without fixed form, and a related branch became known as Tachisme, from the French word for a blot.

The tendency ran alongside Abstract Expressionism but had its own concerns with material, damage and wartime trauma. Hans Hartung and Pierre Soulages painted broad, calligraphic strokes, and Georges Mathieu staged rapid painting performances. In Germany K.O. Götz and Emil Schumacher led the Informel; Italy had Alberto Burri's patched sacking and Emilio Vedova's storms of black; in Spain Antoni Tàpies made thick, wall-like surfaces. Look for scraped, encrusted or dripped paint.