Curatorial Statement

            During Post World War II, a new form of art swept over Europe. French critic Michel Tapié coined Art Informel, meaning “formless art”, in the 1950s to describe this new expression. Art Informel is the European version of America’s Abstract Expressionism.

            In the beginning of the Twentieth Century, abstract art dominated. This form of art abstraction included geometric figures and rejection of anything representational. But by the end of the Second World War, geometric figures no longer sufficed. While both America and Europe established their own independent styles and works with art abstraction, each shared the common need to reject geometric figures from their works completely. Art Informel was created with no desire of control. This new form of art was purely guided by emotions and intuition rather than rational systems of composition.

            The specific art form belonging to France, Tachisme was an extension of Art Informel coined by another French critic named Pierre Gueguen. Tachisme was devised from the French word “tache”, meaning the stain, the spot, or the drip. Tachisme is almost the equivalent of America’s “action-painting”. Tachisme was the European version of gestural painting, still rejecting all geometric forms.

            Through this exhibition created by Ingenium, you will be taken into the art of a world where representationalism was irrelevant during the time of war. Works from artists, like American born Sam Francis, who moved and worked in Paris where he was influenced by the Art Informel movement and the Tachisme style. As well as works from Hans Hartung, Alfred Otto Wolfgang Schulze, Georges Mathieu, and Serge Poliakoff. Their works show the horrors of escaping the war that led them to create some of the most intriguing pieces of art through pure emotion.