Tachisme

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Tachisme (alternative spelling: Tachism, derived from the French word tache–stain) was a French style of abstract painting in the 1940s and 1950s. It is often considered to be the European equivalent to abstract expressionism. Other names for this movement are L'Art Informel^[1] (similar to action painting) and abstraction lyrique (related to American Lyrical Abstraction). The Cobra group artists are also related to Tachisme, as is Japan's Gutai group.

After World War II the term School of Paris often referred to Tachisme, the European equivalent of American abstract expressionism. Important proponents were Jean Dubuffet, Pierre Soulages, Nicholas de Stael, Hans Hartung, Serge Poliakoff, and Georges Mathieu, among several others. (See list of artists below.)

According to Chilvers, the term tachisme "was first used in this sense in about 1951 (the French critics Charles Estienne and Pierre Guéguen have each been credited with coining it) and it was given wide currency by [French critic and painter] Michel Tapié in his book Un Art autre (1952)."

Tachisme was a reaction to Cubism and is characterized by spontaneous brushwork, drips and blobs of paint straight from the tube, and sometimes scribbling reminiscent of calligraphy.

Tachisme is furthermore closely related to Art Informel, which, in its 1950s French art-critical context, designated not so much a sense of 'informal art' as 'a lack or absence of form itself'–viz un-formal or un-form-ulated–and not a simple reduction of formal-ness. Art Informel was more about the absence of any premeditated structure, conception or approach (sans cérémonie) than a mere casual, loosened or relaxed art procedure.^[2]

[edit] Artists

• Pierre Alechinsky (born 1927) – Cobra group
• Karel Appel (1921-2006) – Cobra group
• Jean René Bazaine (1904–2001)
• Roger Bissière (1888–1964)
• Norman Bluhm (1921-1999) – American associated with this movement
• Camille Bryen (1902–1977)
• Alberto Burri (1915–1995)
• Jean Dubuffet (1901–1985)
• Jean Fautrier (1898–1964)
• Lucio Fontana (1899–1968)
• Sam Francis (1923–1994) – American associated with this movement
• Elaine Hamilton (b. 1920) – American associate of Tapié, influenced by this movement
• Hans Hartung (1904–1989)
• Paul Jenkins (born 1923) – American associated with this movement
• Asger Jorn (1914-1973) – Cobra group
• André Lanskoy (1902–1976)
• Georges Mathieu (born 1921)
• Henri Michaux (1899–1984)
• Ludwig Merwart (1913–1979)
• Jean Miotte (born 1926)
• Ernst Wilhelm Nay (1902–1968) – German influenced by this movement
• Serge Poliakoff (1900–1969)
• Maria Helena Vieira da Silva (1908–1992)
• Emilio Scanavino (1922–1986)
• Pierre Soulages (born 1919)
• Nicolas de Staël (1914–1955)
• Michel Tapié (1909-1987)
• Antoni Tàpies (born 1923)
• Bram van Velde (1895–1981)
• Wols (Alfred Otto Wolfgang Schulze) (1913–1951)
• Zao Wou Ki (born 1921)

[edit] See also

• French art
• Abstract expressionism
• Action painting
• Lyrical Abstraction
• Ecole de Paris
• Gutai group
• Spatialism
• Karl Otto Götz

[edit] Notes

[edit] References

• Chilvers, Ian; A dictionary of twentieth-century art Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 1998 ISBN 0-19-211645-2
• Tapié, Michel; Un art autre où il s'agit de nouveaux dévidages du réel' Paris, Gabriel-Giraud et fils, 1952 OCLC 1110556
• Tiampo, Ming. Gutai and Informel Post-war art in Japan and France, 1945--1965. (Worldcat link: [1]) (Dissertation Abstracts International, 65-01A) ISBN 0496660470 9780496660476