Tachisme (alternative spelling: Tachism, derived from the French word tache–stain) is a French style of abstract painting popular in the 1940s and 1950s. It is often considered to be the European equivalent to abstract expressionism.^[1] It was part of a larger postwar movement known as Art Informel (or Informel),^[2] which abandoned geometric abstraction in favour of a more intuitive form of expression, similar to action painting. Another name for Tachism is Abstraction lyrique (related to American Lyrical Abstraction). COBRA is 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-Paul Riopelle, Jean Dubuffet, Pierre Soulages, Nicholas de Stael, Hans Hartung, Serge Poliakoff, Georges Mathieu and Jean Messagier, 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 closely related to Art Informel, which, in its 1950s French art-critical context, referred not so much to a sense of "informal art" as "a lack or absence of form itself"–non-formal or un-form-ulated–and not a simple reduction of formality or formalness. Art Informel was more about the absence of premeditated structure, conception or approach (sans cérémonie) than a mere casual, loosened or relaxed art procedure.^[3]

Artists[link]

• Pierre Alechinsky (born 1927) – Cobra group
• Karel Appel (1921-2006) – Cobra group
• Jean René Bazaine (1904–2001)
• Roger Bissière (1888–1964)
• Ferruccio Bortoluzzi (1920-2007)
• 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 (1920–2010) – 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
• Karel Kuklík (born 1937) – Czech photographer regarded as a representative of Informel in photography.
• René Laubies (1922–2006)
• André Lanskoy (1902–1976)
• Georges Mathieu (born 1921)
• Jean Messagier (1920-1999)
• Henri Michaux (1899–1984)
• Jean Miotte (born 1926)
• Ludwig Merwart (1913–1979)
• Jean Miotte (born 1926)
• Ernst Wilhelm Nay (1902–1968) – German influenced by this movement
• Gen Paul (1895–1975)
• Serge Poliakoff (1906–1969)
• Jackson Pollock (1912–1956)
• Marie Raymond (1908-1989)
• Jean-Paul Riopelle (1923-2002)
• Maria Helena Vieira da Silva (1908–1992)
• Emilio Scanavino (1922–1986)
• Emil Schumacher (1912-1999)
• Pierre Soulages (born 1919)
• Nicolas de Staël (1914–1955)
• Pierre Tal-Coat (1905-1985) - French
• Michel Tapié (1909-1987)
• Antoni Tàpies (1923-2012)
• Bram van Velde (1895–1981)
• Louis Van Lint (1909-1986)
• François Willi Wendt (1909-1970)
• Wols (Alfred Otto Wolfgang Schulze) (1913–1951)
• Zao Wou Ki (born 1921)

See also[link]

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

Notes[link]

References[link]

• 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 0-496-66047-0, ISBN 978-0-496-66047-6

Hans Hartung (21 September 1904 – 7 December 1989) was a German-French painter, known for his gestural abstract style. He was also a decorated World War II veteran of the French Foreign Legion.

Life[link]

Hartung was born in Leipzig, Germany into an artistic family. He developed an early appreciation of Rembrandt, German painters such as Lovis Corinth, and the Expressionists Oskar Kokoschka and Emil Nolde. In 1924 he enrolled in Leipzig University, where he studied philosophy and art history.^[1] He subsequently studied at the Fine Arts academy of Dresden, where he copied the paintings of the masters. The modern French and Spanish works he saw in 1926 at the Internationale Kunstausstellung in Dresden were a revelation to him,^[1] and he decided that he would leave his native country to prevent succumbing to provincialism. Consequently, after a bicycle trip through Italy, he moved to Paris.

In Paris Hartung had little contact with other artists, and copied the works of old and modern masters. He visited the south of France, where the landscape inspired him to a close study of the works of Cézanne, and he developed a great interest in principles of harmony and proportion such as the golden section.^[1] In 1928 he visited Munich where he studied painting technique with Max Doerner. In 1929 he married the artist Anna-Eva Bergmann and established himself in the French towns of Leucate, and then in the Spanish Balearic Islands, eventually settling in Minorca. He exhibited for the first time in 1931 in Dresden.

The death of his father in 1932 severed Hartung's last bonds with Germany. He was rejected from Nazi Germany on account of being a 'degenerate', because his painting style was associated with Cubism – an art movement incompatible with Nazi Germany's ideals. In 1935 when he attempted to sell paintings while visiting Berlin, the police tried to arrest him. He was able to flee the country with the help of his friend Christian Zervos.

After he returned to Paris as a refugee, Hartung and his wife divorced, and he became depressive. His paintings were becoming more abstract and did not sell well. His friends tried to help him with his financial difficulties, and the sculptor Julio González offered him the use of his studio. In 1939 Hartung married González’s daughter Roberta.^[1]

In December 1939, he became a member of the French Foreign Legion. He was closely followed by the Gestapo and arrested for seven months by the French police. After they learned he was a painter, he was put in a red cell in an attempt to disturb his vision. After being released he rejoined the Legion to fight in North Africa, losing a leg in a battle near Belfort. He earned French citizenship in 1945, and was awarded the Croix de Guerre.

In 1947 in Paris he had his first solo exhibition. By the late 1950s he had achieved recognition for his gestural paintings, which were nearly monochromatic and characterized by configurations of long rhythmical brushstrokes or scratches. In 1960 he was awarded the International Grand Prix for painting at the Venice Biennale.^[2]

Hartung's freewheeling abstract paintings set influential precedents for many younger American painters of the sixties, making him an important forerunner of American Lyrical Abstraction of the 1960s and 1970s. He was featured in the 1963 film documentary "School of Paris: (5 Artists at Work)" by American filmmaker Warren Forma.

In the 1970s, Hartung and Anna-Eva Bergman remarried. He died on 7 December 1989, in Antibes, France.

See also[link]

• Tachisme
• School of Paris
• L'Art Informel
• Union des Artistes Allemandes Libres

Notes[link]

References[link]

• La mort de Hans Hartung Le peintre, pionnier puis classique de l'" abstraction ", est mort, vendredi 8 décembre, à l'âge de quatre-vingt-cinq ans, Le Monde. Lundi 11 décembre 1989, p. 1. accessed on October 8, 2006.
• Müller-Yao, Marguerite Hui: Der Einfluß der Kunst der chinesischen Kalligraphie auf die westliche informelle Malerei, Diss. Bonn, Köln 1985. ISBN 3-88375-051-4
• Müller-Yao, Marguerite: Informelle Malerei und chinesische Kalligrafie, in: Informel, Begegnung und Wandel, (hrsg von Heinz Althöfer, Schriftenreihe des Museums am Ostwall; Bd. 2), Dortmund 2002, ISBN 3-611-01062-6
• Rolf Wedewer: Die Malerei des Informel. Weltverlust und Ich-Behauptung, Deutscher Kunstverlag, München, 2007. ISBN 3-422-06560-1

External links[link]

• Hans-Hartung.com
• Hans Hartung - Britannica.com
• Hans Hartung - List of Works in Museum Collections
• The Artists.org - Hans Hartung

This article includes a list of references, related reading or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations. Please improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (January 2010)

François Bayle (born 27 April 1932, Toamasina, Madagascar) is a composer of Musique concrète or acousmatic music.

In the 1950s he studied with Olivier Messiaen, Pierre Schaeffer and Karlheinz Stockhausen. In 1960 he joined the Office de Radiodiffusion Télévision Française, and in 1966 was put in charge of the Groupe de Recherches Musicales (GRM). In 1975, the GRM was integrated with the new Institut national de l'audiovisuel (INA) with Bayle as its head, which post he held until 1997. During these years he organized concerts, radio broadcasts, seminars and events celebrating individual composers, supported technological developments (Syter, GRM Tools, Midi Formers, Acousmographe) and was behind innovations such as the Acousmonium and the INA-GRM recordings label.

After leaving GRM in 1997, he founded his own electronic music studio, the Studio Magison, where he has devoted himself to research, writing and composition.

In the world of electronic art music, Bayle is regarded is one of the most distinguished composers; his influence is widespread (particularly in France, Europe and French-speaking Canada) and his music has earned some of the most prestigious musical prizes (SACEM Grand Prize for Composers, 1978; National Record Grand Prize, 1981; Ars Electronica Prize, Linz, 1989; City of Paris Grand Prize for Music, 1996; Homage by the CIME of São Paulo, 1997; Charles Cros Presidential Grand Prize, 1999). 18 CDs entirely of his music have been released, an exceptionally large number for one composer in the annals of electronic art music. French director Jérémie Carboni is working on a documentary with the composer.

Works[link]

Among Bayle's 100 or so compositions are:

• 1960 Points critiques (instrumental)
• 1962 Trois portraits d’un Oiseau-Qui-N’existe-Pas
• 1962 L'objet captif (instrumental)
• 1963 L'Archipel (quatuor à cordes)
• 1963 Pluriel, pour 19 instruments et haut-parleurs (in Concert Collectif du Grm)
• 1966 Lignes et points
• 1967 Espaces inhabitables
• 1969 Jeïta ou Murmure des eaux
• 1971 Trois Rêves d'oiseau
• 1969–1972 L'Expérience Acoustique [suite comprenant: 1-L"Aventure du Cri/2-le langage des fleurs/3-La preuve par le sens/4-L'épreuve par le son/5-La philosophie du non]
• 1972 Purgatoire, d'après La Divine Comédie, de Dante
• 1973 Vibrations composées
• 1974 Grande polyphonie
• 1976 Camera oscura
• 1978 Tremblement de terre très doux
• 1979–1980 Erosphère [suite comprenant: 1-La fin du bruit/2-Tremblement de terre très doux/3-Toupie dans le ciel]
• 1982 Les Couleurs de la nuit
• 1980–1983 Son Vitesse-Lumière [suite comprenant: 1-Grandeur nature/2-Paysage, personnage, nuage/3-Voyage au centre de la tête/4-Le sommeil d'Euclide/5-Lumière ralentie]
• 1984 Aéroformes
• 1985 Motion-Emotion
• 1987–1988 Théâtre d'Ombres
• 1989 Mimaméta
• 1991 Fabulae [suite comprenant: 1-Fabula/2-Onoma/3-Nota/4-Sonora]
• 1994–1995 La main vide [suite comprenant: 1-Bâton de pluie/2-La fleur future/3-Inventions]
• 1996 Morceaux de ciels
• 1999 Jeîta-retour
• 1999 Arc (pour Gérard Grisey)
• 2000–2001 La forme du temps est un cercle [suite comprenant: 1-Concrescence/2-Si loin, si proche/3-Tempi/4-Allures/5-Cercles]
• 2002–2004 La forme de l'esprit est un papillon [suite comprenant: 1-Ombrages et trouées/2-Couleurs inventées]
• 2005 Univers nerveux
• 2008–2009 L'Oreille étonnée
• 2010 Rien n'est réel [suite comprenant: 1-Sensations/2-Perceptions]
• 2011 Deviner-devenir

External links[link]

• François Bayle's own site. Retrieved 05-05-2007
• François Bayle at allmusic.com. Retrieved 22-04-2007
• BBC Radio 3 article. Retrieved 22-04-2007
• (French) A biography of François Bayle, from IRCAM's website.

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Jean Fautrier (May 16, 1898 – July 21, 1964) was a French painter and sculptor. He was one of the most important practitioners of Tachisme.

He was born in Paris. Given his unwed mother's surname, he was raised by his grandmother until her death in 1908, when he went to live with his mother in London.^[1] In 1912 he studied at the Royal Academy of Art. Unsatisfied by instruction he thought too rigid, he left to study briefly at the Slade School, which he also found disappointing.^[1] The works he saw in the Tate Gallery made a far greater impression on him; he especially admired the paintings of J. M. W. Turner.^[1] He first exhibited his paintings at the Salon d'Automne in 1922 and at the Fabre Gallery in 1923. His first solo exhibition was at the Galerie Visconti in Paris, in 1924.^[1]

In 1927, he painted a series of pictures (still lifes, nudes, landscapes) in which black dominates, and in 1928 he began work on a series of engravings for an illustrated edition of The Divine Comedy of Dante, prepared by Gallimard (which did not succeed). Until 1933 he divided his efforts between sculpture and painting. Short on funds, he spent the years 1934–1936 living in the resort of Tignes, where he made his living as a ski instructor and started a jazz club.^[1]

Fautrier resumed painting in 1937, and in 1943 made his twenty-second and last sculpture. The same year, stopped by the German gestapo, he fled Paris and found refuge in Châtenay-Malabry, where he began work on the project of the Otages. These paintings were exhibited in 1945 with the Drouin gallery. In the years that followed, Fautrier worked on the illustration of several works, among them Alleluiah by George Bataille, and made a series of paintings devoted to small familiar objects.

His late work is abstract, generally small in scale, often combining mixed media on paper. He died in Châtenay-Malabry in 1964. A retrospective was organized by the Gianadda Foundation at Martigny in January–March 2005.

References[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Jean Fautrier

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The Eft (1862)

Henry Le Jeune A.R.A (12 December 1819 – 5 October 1904) was an English painter of landscapes, genre, literary and biblical scenes. He became well known for his genre paintings of children.^[1][2]

Life[link]

Henry Le Jeune was born in London, the son of Anthony Le Jeune, a professional musician of Flemish origin, and the third of five children.^[3] After showing an early interest in art he was encouraged by his family to study the art collections in the British Museum.

In 1834 Le Jeune was admitted to the Royal Academy where, after winning 4 silver medals in succession, he won a gold medal in 1841 for the biblical painting "Samson Bursting his Bonds" (exhibited the following year at the British Institution). He first exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1840 with a work entitled "Joseph Interpreting the Dream of Pharaoh's Chief Butler".

From 1845-48 he taught at the Government School of design at Somerset House, and from 1848-64 was curator and instructor at the Royal Academy. He was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy (ARA) in 1863 and an honorary retired associate in 1886.

Le Jeune married Dorothy Lewis (1815–1864) on 21 June 1844 and had five sons and three daughters.^[4] He lived in London all his life, dying in Hampstead in 1904. He was buried in Kensal Green Cemetery.

Work[link]

Le Jeune painted in both oils and watercolours. His works were exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1840–94, at the British Institution between 1842–63, and at other galleries. Early in his career he painted mainly biblical or literary scenes (Shakespeare or Spenser). These included such titles as "The infancy of Moses" (1842), "Prospero and Miranda" (1844), "Ruth and Boaz (1845), "The Sermon on the mount" (1845) and "The liberation of the slaves" (1847 - which was purchased by Prince Albert).

From the 1850s, he became well known as a genre painter.^[1] In this category belong works such as "Little Red Riding Hood" (1863), "Early sorrow" (1869), "Little Bo Peep" (1873 and 1881), "Much ado about nothing" (1873) and many others.

Notes[link]

Further reading[link]

• Graves, Algernon. The Royal Academy of Arts; a complete dictionary of contributors and their work from its foundation in 1769 to 1904 (Royal Academy of Arts, 1905). pp 34–35.

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Henry Lejeune

• Works by Henri Lejeune (Art Renewal Center Museum)
• Biography of Henry Lejeune ("In Spirit Antiques")