{{Short description|Art movement}} {{Multiple issues| {{Refimprove|date=February 2017}} {{Original research|date=September 2013}} }} {{use dmy dates|date=February 2026}} [[File:Jiménez-Balaguer Détail 1- 2013.JPG|thumb|Painting by Laurent Jiménez-Balaguer]]
'''Informalism''' or '''Art Informel''' ({{IPA|fr|aʁ ɛ̃fɔʁmɛl}}) is a [[Painting|pictorial]] movement from the 1943–1950s,<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=http://www.artehistoria.jcyl.es/arte/contextos/5489.htm|title=Grandes Momentos del Arte - Ficha El informalismo europeo|language=es|date=2012-04-13|website=www.artehistoria.jcyl.es|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120413045700/http://www.artehistoria.jcyl.es/arte/contextos/5489.htm|archive-date=2012-04-13|access-date=2019-10-11}}</ref> that includes all the [[Abstract painting|abstract]] and [[Action painting|gestural]] tendencies that developed in [[France]] and the rest of [[Europe]] during [[World War II]], similar to [[United States|America]]n [[abstract expressionism]].<ref>Walker, John. (1992) [http://www.artdesigncafe.com/Art-Informel-1992 "Art Informel"]. ''Glossary of Art, Architecture & Design since 1945'', 3rd. ed., G.K. Hall, Boston, Massachusetts {{ISBN|0-8161-0556-1}} {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101225204344/http://www.artdesigncafe.com/Art-Informel-1992 |date=December 25, 2010 }}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite web|url=https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/a/art-informel|title=Art informel – Art Term|website=www.tate.org.uk|publisher=Tate|language=en-GB|access-date=2019-10-11}}</ref> Several distinguishing trends are identified within the movement such as [[lyrical abstraction]], [[Matterism|matter painting]], [[Paris School|New Paris School]], [[tachisme]] and [[art brut]]. The [[France|French]] art critic [[Michel Tapié]] coined the term "art autre" (other art) in the [[Homonym|homonymous]] book published in 1952 in relation to non-geometric abstract art.<ref name=":1" /> It was instrumental in improving the concept of abstract art in France during the early 1950s. Its use in the expression of political ideologies in South America during the early 1950s was quite common, as it was seen as the main way to show support for the changing political climate.
==Pictorial practices== Within this style, each artist allows full freedom of expression to the unforeseen quality of materials (a taste for stains or chance) and randomness of gestures, thus rejecting drawing and control and the traditional conception of painting and its development that evolves from the idea to the completed work via sketches and projects. It is an open work that a spectator can interpret freely. The pictorial adventure is completely new; instead of going from the meaning to constructing the corresponding signs, the artist begins with the making of signs and gives the corresponding meaning. In the works of [[Laurent Jiménez-Balaguer]], the language of signs is further deconstructed, allowing for a universal interpretation of a private language. The contribution of music produced the art of musical informalism. Plastic characteristics of this painting are: spontaneity of the gesture, automatism, expressive use of material, the nonexistence of preconceived ideas, the experience that the deed generates the idea, and the work is the place and the privileged moment whereby the artist discovers himself; it is the end of the reproduction of the object for the representation of the theme that becomes the end of the painting. There is a closely related concept – [[Lyrical Abstraction]], exemplified by the works of [[Georges Mathieu]], [[Hans Hartung]], and [[Pierre Soulages]].
== Uses ==
=== Politics ===
==== Venezuela ==== During the 1950s and 1960s, at the height of the Venezuelan dictatorship, Venezuelan artists, such as [[Carlos Cruz-Diez|Carlos Cruz Diez]], [[Gego]], and others, used Informalist art in response to the shift from dictatorship to democracy that their country was dealing with during this time. Their art represented their feelings on the matter as well as their response to this shift and to represent a lot of huge figures in the change over from a dictatorship into democracy.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Total Creative Freedom: "Contesting Modernity" Explores Informalism |url=https://www.mfah.org/blogs/inside-mfah/total-creative-freedom-contesting-modernity-explores-informalism |access-date=2022-04-23 |website=The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston |language=en}}</ref> They used art to represent their support for the shift away from dictatorship during these times of extreme political turbulence in their country.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Contesting Modernity: Informalism in Venezuela, 1955–1975 (October 28, 2018–January 21, 2019) |url=https://www.mfah.org/exhibitions/contesting-modernity-informalism-venezuela-1955-1975 |access-date=2022-04-23 |website=The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston |language=en}}</ref>
=== Improvement on Abstraction === During the Early 1950s, France was a hotbed for Informalist art, referred to as ''Un art autre,'' or ''art informel'', which were terms coined by French art critic Michel Tapié, who published a book by the name of ''Un Art Autre'' the same year as the exhibition of the same name.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Un art autre - Lévy Gorvy |language=fr |url=https://www.levygorvy.com/exhibitions/un-art-autre/ |access-date=2022-04-23 |website=www.levygorvy.com}}</ref> This style was about more than just the paintings, as it also referred to concepts such as lyrical abstraction and painting styles such as tachisme, and matter painting. Artists were inspired by European paintings, as well as American expressionism, while using automatism as their way of conveying this new style of art.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Tate |title=Art autre |url=https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/a/art-autre |access-date=2022-04-23 |website=Tate |language=en-GB}}</ref> Important artists that came out of this period in France were artists such as [[Pierre Soulages]] and [[Jean-Paul Riopelle]].
==Informalist painters== {| width="100%" align="center" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="border: 0px solid #E5FFEC; background-color: #=#E5FFEC" |- | valign="top" width="25%" | * [[Enrico Accatino]] * [[José Balmes]] * [[Gracia Barrios]] * [[Willi Baumeister]] * [[Vasco Bendini]] * [[Alberto Burri]] * [[Mário Cesariny]] | valign="top" width="25%" | * [[Eduardo Chillida]] * [[Fred Friedrich]] * [[Soshana Afroyim]] * [[Jean Dubuffet]]<ref name=":0" /> * {{ill|René Duvillier|fr}} * [[Jean Fautrier]]<ref name=":2">{{Cite web|url=https://typesofartstyles.com/2018/01/31/informalism-abstract-and-gestural-trends/|title=Informalism, Abstract and Gestural Trends|date=2018-01-31|website=types of art styles|language=es|access-date=2019-10-11}}</ref> *[[Elsa Gramcko]]<ref>{{Cite book|title=Contesting Modernity, Informalism in Venezuela, 1955–1975|last=Ramírez|first=Mari Carmen|publisher=Yale University Press|year=2018|isbn=978-0-300-23689-7}}</ref> * [[Hans Hartung]] * [[Laurent Jiménez-Balaguer]] * [[Luigi Malice]] * [[Georges Mathieu]] | valign="top" width="25%" | * [[Henri Michaux]]<ref name=":0" /> * [[Manolo Millares]] * [[Lucio Muñoz]] * [[Ernst Wilhelm Nay]] * {{ill|Georges Noël|fr}} * [[Serge Poliakoff]] * [[Roberto L. Pignataro]] * [[Marie Raymond]] * [[Jean-Paul Riopelle]] * [[Ruth Schmidt Stockhausen]] * [[Bernard Schultze]] * [[Pablo Serrano]] * [[K.R.H. Sonderborg]] * [[Pierre Soulages]] | valign="top" width="25%" | * [[Nicolas de Staël]] * [[Antoni Tàpies]]<ref name=":2" /> * [[Emilio Vedova]] * [[Maria Helena Vieira da Silva]]<ref>Cook, Bernard A. (ed.) (2001). ''Europe Since 1945: An Encyclopedia''. New York & London, Garland. p. 49. {{ISBN|0-8153-4057-5}}.</ref> * [[Wols]] * [[Rodrigo Franzão]]<ref name=":6">{{Cite web|url=https://www.textileartist.org/rodrigo-franzao-industrial-strength-stitching/|title=Rodrigo Franzão: Industrial strength stitching|date=2019-10-07|website=textile art|language=en|access-date=2019-10-07}}</ref> |}
==Collections== {| class="wikitable" |+ !Year !Title !Location |- |1952 |''Un Art Autre''<ref>{{Cite web |last=Tate |title=Art informel |url=https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/a/art-informel |access-date=2022-04-23 |website=Tate |language=en-GB}}</ref> |Paris, France |- |2018 |''Contesting Modernity: Informalism in Venezuela, 1955–1975'' |Museum of Fine Arts, Houston |}
==See also== * [[Matterism]] * [[Nuagisme]]
==References== {{reflist}}<br />
[[Category:Art Informel and Tachisme| ]] [[Category:Contemporary art movements]]