Michel Tapié
Encyclopedia
Michel Tapié was an internationally active French
critic
, curator
, and collector of art. He was an early and influential theorist and practitioner of "tachisme
", which is generally regarded as the European equivalent of abstract expressionism
. Tapié was from an old and aristocratic French family; he was also a second cousin once removed ("petit-cousin") of the painter Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
(the painter's mother Adèle Tapié de Celeyran was his great-aunt).
, and especially the subgenres of action painting
and lyrical abstraction
. Herschel B. Chipp's Theories of Modern Art: a Source Book for Artists and Critics (1968; see list of references below), includes an English translation of an extensive portion of that work (pp. 603-605). "L'art Informel" was Tapié's general term for art reflecting the sensibility described in this manifesto
.
According to the Guggenheim Collection's art-historical glossary entry on "l'art informel" (see External links), Tapié, in his 1952 book, "was trying to define a tendency in postwar European painting that he saw as a radical break with all traditional notions of order and composition —including those of Modernism.... He used the term Art Informel (from the French informe, meaning unformed or formless) to refer to the antigeometric, antinaturalistic, and nonfigurative formal preoccupations of these artists, stressing their pursuit of spontaneity, looseness of form, and the irrational.... Artists who became associated with Art Informel include Enrico Donati
, Lucio Fontana
, Asger Jorn
, Emil Schumacher
, Kazuo Shiraga, Antoni Tàpies
, and Jiro Yoshihara
." http://www.guggenheimcollection.org/site/glossary_Art_Informel.html
’s first solo exhibition in Paris
, which took place at the Studio Paul Facchetti (see Tapié's essay/catalogue listed below). The French lyrical abstractionist (or tachiste) Georges Mathieu
was another artist of whom Tapié was an early champion (see catalogue below).
In 1960, with architect Luigi Moretti
:it:Luigi Moretti (architetto), Tapié co-founded the International Center of Aesthetic Research in Turin, Italy [Chipp, p. 591], a facility for the study and exhibition of art, as well as for the publication and dissemination of critical, investigative, or theoretical works on art. The Center, which closed its doors not long after the death of Tapié in 1987, also housed a museum with a permanent collection of modern and contemporary art. In Japan
, Tapié was an important associate of the Gutai Group
http://www.fluxusgenova.org/riconeng.html, which was a formative influence on the Fluxus
movement. Tapié organized and curated scores of exhibitions of new and modern art in major cities all over the world, including not only Paris
and Turin
but also New York
, Rome
, Tokyo
, Munich
, Madrid
, Amsterdam
, Buenos Aires
, Milan
, and Osaka
.
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
critic
Art critic
An art critic is a person who specializes in evaluating art. Their written critiques, or reviews, are published in newspapers, magazines, books and on web sites...
, curator
Curator
A curator is a manager or overseer. Traditionally, a curator or keeper of a cultural heritage institution is a content specialist responsible for an institution's collections and involved with the interpretation of heritage material...
, and collector of art. He was an early and influential theorist and practitioner of "tachisme
Tachisme
Tachisme 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...
", which is generally regarded as the European equivalent of abstract expressionism
Abstract expressionism
Abstract expressionism was an American post–World War II art movement. It was the first specifically American movement to achieve worldwide influence and put New York City at the center of the western art world, a role formerly filled by Paris...
. Tapié was from an old and aristocratic French family; he was also a second cousin once removed ("petit-cousin") of the painter Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
Henri Marie Raymond de Toulouse-Lautrec-Monfa or simply Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec was a French painter, printmaker, draughtsman, and illustrator, whose immersion in the colourful and theatrical life of fin de siècle Paris yielded an œuvre of exciting, elegant and provocative images of the modern...
(the painter's mother Adèle Tapié de Celeyran was his great-aunt).
Art of another kind
Michel Tapié's 1952 book (sometimes referred to and anthologized as an "essay") entitled Un art autre, most commonly rendered in English as "Art of Another Kind", was immensely influential in establishing a European approach to and embrace of what in the U.S. is generally termed abstract expressionismAbstract expressionism
Abstract expressionism was an American post–World War II art movement. It was the first specifically American movement to achieve worldwide influence and put New York City at the center of the western art world, a role formerly filled by Paris...
, and especially the subgenres of action painting
Action painting
Action painting sometimes called "gestural abstraction", is a style of painting in which paint is spontaneously dribbled, splashed or smeared onto the canvas, rather than being carefully applied...
and lyrical abstraction
Lyrical Abstraction
Lyrical Abstraction is either of two related but distinctly separate trends in Post-war Modernist painting, and a third definition is the usage as a descriptive term. It is a descriptive term characterizing a type of abstract painting related to Abstract Expressionism; in use since the 1940s...
. Herschel B. Chipp's Theories of Modern Art: a Source Book for Artists and Critics (1968; see list of references below), includes an English translation of an extensive portion of that work (pp. 603-605). "L'art Informel" was Tapié's general term for art reflecting the sensibility described in this manifesto
Art manifesto
The art manifesto has been a recurrent feature associated with the avant-garde in Modernism. Art manifestos are mostly extreme in their rhetoric and intended for shock value to achieve a revolutionary effect. They often address wider issues, such as the political system...
.
According to the Guggenheim Collection's art-historical glossary entry on "l'art informel" (see External links), Tapié, in his 1952 book, "was trying to define a tendency in postwar European painting that he saw as a radical break with all traditional notions of order and composition —including those of Modernism.... He used the term Art Informel (from the French informe, meaning unformed or formless) to refer to the antigeometric, antinaturalistic, and nonfigurative formal preoccupations of these artists, stressing their pursuit of spontaneity, looseness of form, and the irrational.... Artists who became associated with Art Informel include Enrico Donati
Enrico Donati
Enrico Donati was an American Surrealist painter and sculptor of Italian birth.-Life and work:Enrico Donati studied economics at the Università degli Studi, Pavia, and in 1934 moved to the USA, where he attended the New School for Social Research and the Art Students League of New York...
, Lucio Fontana
Lucio Fontana
Lucio Fontana was an Italian painter, sculptor and theorist of Argentine birth. He was mostly known as the founder of Spatialism and his ties to Arte Povera.-Early life:...
, Asger Jorn
Asger Jorn
Asger Oluf Jorn was a Danish painter, sculptor, ceramic artist, and author. He was a founding member of the avant-garde movement COBRA and the Situationist International...
, Emil Schumacher
Emil Schumacher
Emil Schumacher German painter, important representative of abstract expressionism in post-war Germany....
, Kazuo Shiraga, Antoni Tàpies
Antoni Tàpies
Antoni Tàpies i Puig, 1st Marquess of Tàpies is a Catalan painter. He is one of the most famous European artists of his generation. After studying law for 3 years, he devoted himself from 1943 onwards only to his painting...
, and Jiro Yoshihara
Jiro Yoshihara
Jiro Yoshihara was a Japanese painter. He is in most sources named as the founder of the Gutai group in 1954. Yoshihara wrote the "Gutai Manifesto" in 1956. This leader of the "Gutai" group - a group of internationally acclaimed avant-garde artists representative of Japan's post-war art world...
." http://www.guggenheimcollection.org/site/glossary_Art_Informel.html
Globe-trotting promoter of modern art
Chipp notes that Tapié's importance to avant garde art, beginning in the mid 1940s, was "not only as an author of books, criticism, and exhibition catalogues, but also as an organizer of exhibitions of contemporary art in Europe, Latin America, and Japan, and as an adviser to galleries throughout the world" (p. 591). In 1952, Tapié wrote the catalogue for, and helped to organize, Jackson PollockJackson Pollock
Paul Jackson Pollock , known as Jackson Pollock, was an influential American painter and a major figure in the abstract expressionist movement. During his lifetime, Pollock enjoyed considerable fame and notoriety. He was regarded as a mostly reclusive artist. He had a volatile personality, and...
’s first solo exhibition in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, which took place at the Studio Paul Facchetti (see Tapié's essay/catalogue listed below). The French lyrical abstractionist (or tachiste) Georges Mathieu
Georges Mathieu
Georges Mathieu is a French painter in the style of lyrical abstraction.-Biography:He was born in Boulogne-sur-Mer, France, and gained an international reputation in the 1950s as a leading Abstract Expressionist. His large paintings are created very rapidly and impulsively...
was another artist of whom Tapié was an early champion (see catalogue below).
In 1960, with architect Luigi Moretti
Luigi Moretti
Luigi Walter Moretti was an Italian architect.- Education and academic career :He was born in via Napoleone III, on the Esquiline Hill, in the same apartment where he lived almost his entire life...
:it:Luigi Moretti (architetto), Tapié co-founded the International Center of Aesthetic Research in Turin, Italy [Chipp, p. 591], a facility for the study and exhibition of art, as well as for the publication and dissemination of critical, investigative, or theoretical works on art. The Center, which closed its doors not long after the death of Tapié in 1987, also housed a museum with a permanent collection of modern and contemporary art. In Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
, Tapié was an important associate of the Gutai Group
Gutai group
The Gutai group was an artistic movement and association of artists founded by Jiro Yoshihara in Japan in 1954...
http://www.fluxusgenova.org/riconeng.html, which was a formative influence on the Fluxus
Fluxus
Fluxus—a name taken from a Latin word meaning "to flow"—is an international network of artists, composers and designers noted for blending different artistic media and disciplines in the 1960s. They have been active in Neo-Dada noise music and visual art as well as literature, urban planning,...
movement. Tapié organized and curated scores of exhibitions of new and modern art in major cities all over the world, including not only Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
and Turin
Turin
Turin is a city and major business and cultural centre in northern Italy, capital of the Piedmont region, located mainly on the left bank of the Po River and surrounded by the Alpine arch. The population of the city proper is 909,193 while the population of the urban area is estimated by Eurostat...
but also New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
, Tokyo
Tokyo
, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...
, Munich
Munich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...
, Madrid
Madrid
Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...
, Amsterdam
Amsterdam
Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...
, Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...
, Milan
Milan
Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...
, and Osaka
Osaka
is a city in the Kansai region of Japan's main island of Honshu, a designated city under the Local Autonomy Law, the capital city of Osaka Prefecture and also the biggest part of Keihanshin area, which is represented by three major cities of Japan, Kyoto, Osaka and Kobe...
.
Quotation
In the words of Saint John of the Cross, 'To reach the unknown, you must pass through the unknown.' Academicism--finished for good, isn't it?
See also
- TachismeTachismeTachisme 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...
- Abstract expressionismAbstract expressionismAbstract expressionism was an American post–World War II art movement. It was the first specifically American movement to achieve worldwide influence and put New York City at the center of the western art world, a role formerly filled by Paris...
- Action paintingAction paintingAction painting sometimes called "gestural abstraction", is a style of painting in which paint is spontaneously dribbled, splashed or smeared onto the canvas, rather than being carefully applied...
- Lyrical abstractionLyrical AbstractionLyrical Abstraction is either of two related but distinctly separate trends in Post-war Modernist painting, and a third definition is the usage as a descriptive term. It is a descriptive term characterizing a type of abstract painting related to Abstract Expressionism; in use since the 1940s...
- Jiro YoshiharaJiro YoshiharaJiro Yoshihara was a Japanese painter. He is in most sources named as the founder of the Gutai group in 1954. Yoshihara wrote the "Gutai Manifesto" in 1956. This leader of the "Gutai" group - a group of internationally acclaimed avant-garde artists representative of Japan's post-war art world...
- Elaine HamiltonElaine Hamilton-O'NealElaine Hamilton-O'Neal, , professionally known as Elaine Hamilton, was an internationally known American abstract painter and muralist born near Catonsville, Maryland...
- Gutai groupGutai groupThe Gutai group was an artistic movement and association of artists founded by Jiro Yoshihara in Japan in 1954...
Sources
- Chipp, Herschel B.. Theories of modern art; a source book by artists and critics (Berkeley, University of CaliforniaUniversity of CaliforniaThe University of California is a public university system in the U.S. state of California. Under the California Master Plan for Higher Education, the University of California is a part of the state's three-tier public higher education system, which also includes the California State University...
Press, 1968) - Le Pichon, Yann ; and Jean Louis Ferrier. Art of our century : the chronicle of western art, 1900 to the present [Walter D. Glanze, English translation] (New York : Prentice Hall Editions, 1989) ISBN 0-13-011644-0 : 9780130116444 9780130116444 0130116440 [contains extensive material concerning Tapié's Un Art Autre (1952)]
- Moretti, Luigi; Michel Tapié. Le baroque généralisé : manifeste du baroque ensembliste (Torino : Edizioni del Dioscuro, 1965) OCLCOCLCOCLC Online Computer Library Center, Inc. is "a nonprofit, membership, computer library service and research organization dedicated to the public purposes of furthering access to the world’s information and reducing information costs"...
57403312 - Tapié, Michel. Un art autre où il s'agit de nouveaux dévidages du réel (ParisParisParis is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, Gabriel-Giraud et fils, 1952) OCLC 1110556 - Antoni TàpiesAntoni TàpiesAntoni Tàpies i Puig, 1st Marquess of Tàpies is a Catalan painter. He is one of the most famous European artists of his generation. After studying law for 3 years, he devoted himself from 1943 onwards only to his painting...
and Michel Tapié. Antonio Tapies [sic], New YorkNew YorkNew York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, G. Wittenborn, 1959. OCLCOCLCOCLC Online Computer Library Center, Inc. is "a nonprofit, membership, computer library service and research organization dedicated to the public purposes of furthering access to the world’s information and reducing information costs"...
1090149 [Note: this Worldcat listing gives the painter's first name as "Antonio" in the title, also omitting the accent mark in the surname. Despite the similar surnames, the two men were unrelated.] - Tapié, Michel; Paul Jenkins; Esther Jenkins. Observations (New YorkNew YorkNew York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, G. Wittenborn, 1956) OCLC 1127301 - Tapié, Michel. Elaine Hamilton: Exhibition of Paintings (OsakaOsakais a city in the Kansai region of Japan's main island of Honshu, a designated city under the Local Autonomy Law, the capital city of Osaka Prefecture and also the biggest part of Keihanshin area, which is represented by three major cities of Japan, Kyoto, Osaka and Kobe...
, JapanJapanJapan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
: Fujikawa Gallery), April 12–18, 1961. OCLCOCLCOCLC Online Computer Library Center, Inc. is "a nonprofit, membership, computer library service and research organization dedicated to the public purposes of furthering access to the world’s information and reducing information costs"...
81011323 - Tapié, Michel. Hans Hofmann : peintures 1962 : 23 avril-18 mai 1963. (ParisParisParis is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
: Galerie Anderson-Mayer, 1963.) [exhibition catalogue and commentary: Tapié was a great admirer of Hans HofmannHans HofmannHans Hofmann was a German-born American abstract expressionist painter.-Biography:Hofmann was born in Weißenburg, Bavaria on March 21, 1880, the son of Theodor and Franziska Hofmann. When he was six he moved with his family to Munich...
] OCLC: 62515192 - Tapié, Michel. Pollock (ParisParisParis is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, P. Facchetti, 1952) OCLC: 30601793 - Tapié, Michel; Instituto Torquato de di Tella. Centro de Artes Visuales. Intuiciones y realizaciones formales : exposición de obras seleccionadas por Michel Tapié, Centro de Artes Visuales, Instituto Torcuato di Tella ... Buenos Aires ... del 14 de agosto al 4 de setiembre de 1964 (Worldcat link: http://www.worldcatlibraries.org/oclc/7889303&referer=brief_results) (Buenos AiresBuenos AiresBuenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...
: El Instituto, 1964) OCLCOCLCOCLC Online Computer Library Center, Inc. is "a nonprofit, membership, computer library service and research organization dedicated to the public purposes of furthering access to the world’s information and reducing information costs"...
7889303 - Jirō YoshiharaJiro YoshiharaJiro Yoshihara was a Japanese painter. He is in most sources named as the founder of the Gutai group in 1954. Yoshihara wrote the "Gutai Manifesto" in 1956. This leader of the "Gutai" group - a group of internationally acclaimed avant-garde artists representative of Japan's post-war art world...
; Shōzō ShimamotoShozo ShimamotoShozo Shimamoto, born in Osaka in 1928, is a Japanese artist. He was an early member of the avant garde Gutai group founded in the 1950s, and his works are in museum collections such as those of the Tate Gallery and the Tate Modern and the Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art in Kobe, Japan...
; Michel Tapié; Gutai Bijutsu Kyōkai. Gutai [= 具体] (具体美術協会, Nishinomiya-shi : Gutai Bijutsu Kyōkai, 1955-1965) [Japanese : Serial Publication : Periodical] OCLCOCLCOCLC Online Computer Library Center, Inc. is "a nonprofit, membership, computer library service and research organization dedicated to the public purposes of furthering access to the world’s information and reducing information costs"...
53194339 [Worldcat "Other titles" information: Gutai art exhibition, Aventure informelle, International art of a new era, U.S.A., Japan, Europe, International Sky Festival, Osaka, 1960]
External links
- COLOR IMAGE of a Michel Tapié painting (via an auction record at artnet.de)
- Information on Michel Tapié at www.the-artists.org
- Guggenheim collection: art-historical glossary entry elucidating the term "art informel"
- Guggenheim Museum Pollock bio mentioning his first Paris show in 1952
- L'exposition "Tapié: un art autre": Information on 1997 Tapié exhibition in ToulouseToulouseToulouse is a city in the Haute-Garonne department in southwestern FranceIt lies on the banks of the River Garonne, 590 km away from Paris and half-way between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea...
- Fluxugenova historical essay on FluxusFluxusFluxus—a name taken from a Latin word meaning "to flow"—is an international network of artists, composers and designers noted for blending different artistic media and disciplines in the 1960s. They have been active in Neo-Dada noise music and visual art as well as literature, urban planning,...
mentioning the formative influence of the Gutaj group and its connection to Michel Tapié