Centro Virtual de Arte Argentino

Informalism. Introduction
Informalism
in Argentina
by Jorge López Anaya
August 2003
Argentine Informalism incorporated processes which went against
the “good taste” of the local
practices. Based on the existential poetry of the time, through spontaneous gestures and the use
of discarded material, it violated the limits of the traditional artistic genre and opened the road to the concept
of the object, the installations and the art of action.
 
About Informalism
Greco. Pintura, 1960
Alberto Greco. Painting, 1960 collage on wood, 210 x 145 cm Museo de Arte Moderno de Bs. As.
There are several definitions of Informalism. Be it that they come from art critiques involved in the tendency or the artists themselves, the only thing they have in common is the incapacity to cover the entire spectrum of the definition. The term “Informalism” was first coined by the critique Michel Tapié (Albi, 1909 - Paris, 1987); and it stemmed from an exhibition entitled Signifciants de l’Informel, which took place at the Fachetti Studio (Paris) in November 1951, with works of Fautrier, Dubuffet, Michaux, Mathieu, Riopelle and Serpan.
A little afterwards Tapié published Un art autre (A different art). His conception of autre art was about the manifestation that parted from zero, in opposition to the abstract academics and in favor of an art where “only the expression gives orders”. It wasn’t enough to abandon geometry and recur to the free form; on the contrary, it was a must to break away from the plastic arts, in order to take shelter in the “making” without control, in total spontaneity.
 
Wells. Relieve oscuro, 1961
Luis Alberto Wells. Relieve oscuro
(Dark embossing), 1961, burned wood
65 x 50 cm. Private collection
Kemble. Sin título, 1961
Kenneth Kemble. Untitled, 1961,
sack-cloth, gesso, oil, industrial paint
on hardboard, 65 x 116 cm
Private collection
Di Benedetto. Sin título, 1962
Noemí Di Benedetto. Untitled, 1962 glued canvas, 163 x 101 cm
Private collection
 
Paparella. Sin título, 1959/60
Aldo Paparella. Untitled (Sugerencias series), c.1959/60, iron, 50 x 95 x 49 cm Private collection
Pucciarelli, Mood Índigo, 1959
Mario Pucciarelli. Mood indigo, 1959
oil on canvas, 140 x 69.5 cm
Private collection
Kemble. Prohibida, 1960
Kenneth Kemble. Prohibida, 1960
sack-cloth, nails, paint on hardboard
60 x 150 cm Private collection
 
Seguí. Sin título, 1961
Antonio Seguí. Untitled, 1961
mixed technique on canvas
70 x 78 cm. Private collection
The term tachisme used by Charles Estienne, first appeared in 1954, within the context of French critiques. Towards this same period action painting came about, proposed by Harold Rosenberg in 1952. This technique represented a North American art sector founded on the violent expression of the material execution.Lyrical abstraction, tachisme, abstract expressionism, spontaneous gestures, matter painting were proposals that reflected the philosophy of the time (Sarterean Existencialism and Merleau-Ponty Phenomenology), through the commitment of the body with the pictorial action.
The expansion of the Informal tendencies was fast and generalized. Different groups and independent artists in France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, United States and South America leaned towards a style of painting that did not seem to admit national boundaries and only picked up a few of the local characteristics.