Lyrical Abstraction

The Lyrical Abstraction is an artistic movement that develops in Paris after the Second World War. The term "lyrical abstraction" is used for the first time by José Jean Marchand and Georges Mathieu in the exhibition "Imaginary" organized in 1947.

After the Second World War, France seeks to rebuild its identity devastated by the German occupation and collaboration. Some art critics seized a new current abstract to try to restore the prestige of artistic Paris, who had held the rank of capital of the arts to the war. At the exit of the latter, one could indeed see a fight between Paris and the new school of American painting based in New York (Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning ...).

Church Saint-Severin in Paris, Bazaine window (detail)

This current opposes not only the movement cubist and surrealist preceding it, but still the geometric abstraction (or "cold abstraction"). The artists of this movement are somehow the first to apply the lessons of Kandinsky (considered one of the fathers of abstraction). A critique of the time sought to demonstrate that geometric abstraction had little abstract in that it outlined geometric figures known and recognized, a square, a line ... The lyrical abstraction was so experienced as the opening to the personal expression of the artist.

Many exhibitions are held in Paris in the post-war gallery Drouin example where we could see Jean Le Moal, Gustave Singier and Alfred Manessier in 1946, Roger Bissiere in 1947, Wols since 1945 .., or Conti gallery with Pierre Soulages or Gerard Schneider.

A wind blowing across the capital and get the feeling this singular personage what Georges Mathieu decided to organize two exhibitions at The imaginary palace of Luxembourg in 1947, with Camille Bryen - well-known figure of Saint-Germain-des Pres, maverick Surrealist, Dadaist solitary poet, draftsman, printmaker and painter - then "HWPSMTB (Hans Hartung, Wols, Francis Picabia, François Stahly, Georges Mathieu, Michel Tapie, Camille Bryen) in 1948. He had intended to impose its terms of lyrical abstraction that was also included in place of the imagination.

Then in March 1951 came the great vehemence face exposure at Nina Dausset which are presented for the first time alongside artists French and American abstract. This event is organized by Michel Tapie, whose role as defender of the movement is of utmost importance. With these events, he declared triumphantly that "Lyrical Abstraction is born."

But it was a relatively short reign (late 1957), which was quickly supplanted by the new realism of Pierre Restany and Yves Klein.

The other most famous members are Huguette Arthur Bertrand, Jean Bazaine, Roger Bissiere, Olivier Debre, Maurice Esteve, Jean Fautrier, Pierre Fichet, Oscar Gauthier, Elvira January, Serge Poliakoff, Nicolas de Staël, Vieira da Silva, Zao Wou - Ki ...

An exhibition entitled The lyrical, Paris 1945-1956, bringing together the works of sixty painters, is presented in Paris at Musée du Luxembourg (Senate) in 2006.

Poetic Abstraction

The term "abstract poetry" is a contemporary art movement, following the abstracion lyrical. Between humans and nature, it is defined by an open creative research on the unconscious, especially the interior landscapes. It emphasizes the dreamlike and poetic expression, at odds with other current contemporaints oriented blueprint complete materialism and technology.

The painterly abstraction comes at the beginning of the 20th century (abstract art). Kandinsky was the first to paint an abstract canvas in 1910. The abstract painting evolves and reappears including a half-century later in Europe in other ways with Bazaine, Bissiere, Le Moal, Manessier, Fautrier, Fontana, Michaux, Nicolas de Staël, Pierre Soulages, Roberto Soler, Zao Wou-Ki ...

Like Munch, Kandinsky and Mondrian are trying to express the "inner time" of the artist and his emotions.

The abstraction comes in three main forms:

The space is structured by the laws of construction set forth by the artists, or simply search for purity. In 1913 Malevich painted a black square on a white background. This count suggests calm, peace with oneself or vacuum (Mondrian, Malevich, Honegger, Baron-Renouard, Nemours Buren ...)

2. The decorative abstraction:

The decor may be independent of its environment. It is a work without express a concept other aesthetic (Vasarely, Poliakoff, Rougemont, Thomas Ruff, Lisa Lena).

3. The lyrical abstraction:

It is based on freedom of expression and the absence of rules to be born in the spectator feelings and emotions. The sensitivity of the artist and her story are the motivations of its expression ...

The lyrical abstraction has some specific forms: the non-figurative painting (Jean Bazaine, Maurice Esteve, Elvira January, Jean Le Moal, Alfred Manessier), gestural painting (Pollock, Matthew), informal art (Jean Fautrier, Hartung) .

Dissidents School of Nice, Boullet Alain, Gilles Pho and Fanny Balzamo continue searching pictorial poetry from free movement of light, shade and felt inside, in continuity after expressive lyrical abstraction. There are many commonalities between these three artists, readers of Rilke, which are affinity human and aesthetic

- Thinking based on close observation of human beings and nature;

- A search of the interior plastic and light as sculptural pictorial;

- A deep interest in meditation, Buddhist philosophy and eastern extremes;

- A passion for psychoanalysis, dreams and the unconscious.

Today recognized the poetic abstraction is a current that grows beyond its originators. The wording is taken here and there by other artists who claim it.