Knowra Tachisme Tachisme Tachisme is a postwar European abstract art movement marked by spontaneous brushwork, irregular color patches, and gestural marks. It developed within the broader currents of Art Informel and lyrical abstraction.
Art Informel : A postwar European movement favoring non-geometric abstraction, material experiment, and unplanned forms. Tachisme is commonly treated as one strand of this broader movement.
World War II : A global war fought from 1939 to 1945 between the Axis powers and the Allies. Its aftermath reshaped European cultural life and the conditions in which Tachisme arose.
Hans Hartung : A German-French painter known for forceful, calligraphic marks in abstract compositions. His energetic mark-making exemplifies a gestural tendency associated with Tachisme.
Outsider art : Art made outside established artistic institutions and conventions, often by self-taught creators. Tachisme’s interest in untrained or non-academic expression intersected with debates about outsider art.
Lyrical abstraction : A form of non-geometric abstraction emphasizing fluid forms, expressive color, and painterly gesture. Its expressive, improvised painting often overlaps with Tachisme.
Michel Tapié : A French art critic and curator who promoted Art Informel and related postwar abstraction. His writing and exhibitions helped frame Tachisme within Art Informel.
Georges Mathieu : A French painter known for rapid, performative abstract compositions and calligraphic gestures. His public, swift painting made gesture a defining spectacle of postwar abstraction.
Abstract painting : Painting that does not represent recognizable objects as its primary aim. Tachisme is a historically specific form of abstract painting.
Abstract expressionism : A postwar art movement associated with large-scale abstraction and individual artistic gesture, especially in the United States. Its gestural painting resembles Tachisme but arose in a different national context.
Un art autre : Michel Tapié’s 1952 book advocating an alternative, non-academic direction in contemporary art. The book gave a prominent theoretical platform to the kind of abstraction associated with Tachisme.
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