Lyrical abstraction

Lyrical abstraction is abstract art characterized by spontaneous, flowing marks and expressive color, emphasizing gesture and emotional intensity over depiction.

Gestural abstraction: Abstract painting that foregrounds the physical act and movement of mark-making. Its emphasis on visible gesture overlaps with lyrical abstraction’s flowing marks.
Tachisme: A postwar French painting tendency marked by spontaneous brushwork, stains, and irregular forms. It names a closely related French practice that helped shape lyrical abstraction’s vocabulary.
Larry Rivers: An American painter associated with the transition between Abstract Expressionism and Pop art. His work appeared in the 1960 New York exhibition that established the American label.
Hard-edge painting: Abstract painting characterized by sharply defined boundaries between areas of flat color. Its crisp divisions oppose lyrical abstraction’s flowing marks and softened boundaries.
Color field painting: Abstract painting that uses broad areas of color as its primary visual subject. Its expressive color offers a related approach with less emphasis on calligraphic gesture.
Jean Dubuffet: A French artist known for raw, unconventional paintings and the concept of Art Brut. His non-academic mark-making forms part of the postwar context for spontaneous abstraction.
Sam Francis: An American painter known for luminous fields, splashes, and open compositions of color. His canvases became prominent examples of the American lyrical abstraction designation.
Minimalism: An art movement that favors simplified forms, repetition, and reduced personal expression. Its restraint provides a counterpoint to lyrical abstraction’s expressive gesture.
Art informel: A postwar European tendency toward spontaneous, non-geometric forms and rejection of fixed compositional rules. Lyrical abstraction is often situated within this broader postwar tendency.
Georges Mathieu: A French painter known for rapid, calligraphic gestural abstraction. His performance-like brushwork exemplifies a European strand adjacent to lyrical abstraction.

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