Michel Tapié (full name: Michel Tapié de Céleyran; 26 February 1909 – 30 July 1987) was a French art

critic A critic is a person who communicates an assessment and an opinion of various forms of creative works such as art, literature, music, cinema, theater, fashion, architecture, and food. Critics may also take as their subject social or gover ...

curator A curator (from la, cura, meaning "to take care") is a manager or overseer. When working with cultural organizations, a curator is typically a "collections curator" or an "exhibitions curator", and has multifaceted tasks dependent on the parti ...

, and collector. He was an early and influential theorist and practitioner of "

tachisme __NOTOC__ Tachisme (alternative spelling: Tachism, derived from the French word ''tache'', stain) is a French style of abstract painting popular in the 1940s and 1950s. The term is said to have been first used with regards to the movement in 19 ...

", a French style of abstract painting popular in the 1940s and 1950s which is regarded as a European version of

abstract expressionism Abstract expressionism is a post–World War II art movement in American painting, developed in New York City in the 1940s. It was the first specifically American movement to achieve international influence and put New York at the center of the ...

. Tapié was a founder member of the Compagnie de l'Art Brut with Dubuffet and Breton In 1948, as well he managed the Foyer De l'Art Brut at the Galerie René Drouin.Tapié was from an aristocratic French family and was a second cousin once removed of the painter

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec Comte Henri Marie Raymond de Toulouse-Lautrec-Monfa (24 November 1864 – 9 September 1901) was a French painter, printmaker, draughtsman, caricaturist and illustrator whose immersion in the colourful and theatrical life of Paris in th ...

. The painter's mother Adèle Tapié de Celeyran was Tapié's great-aunt.

Art of Another Kind

Michel Tapié's 1952 book entitled ''Un art autre'' (Art of Another Kind), influenced a distinctly European approach to American

, especially the subgenres of

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. The resulting work often emphasizes the physical a ...

and

lyrical abstraction Lyrical abstraction is either of two related but distinct trends in Post-war Modernist painting: ''European Abstraction Lyrique'' born in Paris, the French art critic Jean José Marchand being credited with coining its name in 1947, considered ...

. 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 A manifesto is a published declaration of the intentions, motives, or views of the issuer, be it an individual, group, political party or government. A manifesto usually accepts a previously published opinion or public consensus or promotes a ...

. 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 Lucio Fontana (; 19 February 1899 – 7 September 1968) was an Argentine-Italian painter, sculptor and theorist. He is mostly known as the founder of Spatialism. Early life Born in Rosario, to Italian immigrant parents, he was ...

, Agenore Fabbri,

Alberto Burri Alberto Burri (12 March 191513 February 1995; ) was an Italian visual artist, painter, sculptor, and physician based in Città di Castello. He is associated with the matterism of the European informal art movement and described his style as ...

Asger Jorn Asger Oluf Jorn (3 March 1914 – 1 May 1973) was a Danish painter, sculptor, ceramic artist, and author. He was a founding member of the avant-garde movement COBRA and the Situationist International. He was born in Vejrum, in the northwest c ...

, Phillip Martin,

Emil Schumacher Emil Schumacher (29 August 1912 in Hagen, Westfalen – 4 October 1999 in San José, Ibiza) was a German painter. He was an important representative of abstract expressionism in post-war Germany. In 2009 the Kunstquartier Hagen was inaugura ...

, Kazuo Shiraga,

Antoni Tàpies Antoni Tàpies i Puig, 1st Marquess of Tápies (; 13 December 1923 – 6 February 2012) was a Catalan People, Catalan painter, sculptor and art theorist, who became one of the most famous European artists of his generation. Life The son of Jo ...

, and

Jiro Yoshihara was a Japanese painter, art educator, curator, and businessman. Mainly known for his gestural abstract impasto paintings from the 1950s and Zen-painting inspired hard-edge ''Circles'' beginning in the 1960s, Yoshihara’s oeuvre also encompasse ...

Globe-trotting promoter of modern art

Chipp notes that Tapié's importance to

Avant-garde The avant-garde (; In 'advance guard' or ' vanguard', literally 'fore-guard') is a person or work that is experimental, radical, or unorthodox with respect to art, culture, or society.John Picchione, The New Avant-garde in Italy: Theoretica ...

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 Pollock Paul Jackson Pollock (; January 28, 1912August 11, 1956) was an American painter and a major figure in the abstract expressionism, abstract expressionist movement. He was widely noticed for his "Drip painting, drip technique" of pouring or splas ...

’s first solo exhibition in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Si ...

, 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 (27 January 1921 – 10 June 2012) was a French abstract painter, art theorist, and member of the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris. He is considered one of the fathers of European lyrical abstraction, a trend of informalism. B ...

was another artist of whom Tapié was an early champion (see catalogue below). In 1957, Tapié travelled with

to Tokyo, and later to Osaka, to meet the

Gutai Group The was a Japanese avant-garde artist group founded in the Hanshin region by young artists under the leadership of the painter Jirō Yoshihara in Ashiya, Japan, in 1954. The group, today one of the most internationally-recognized instances o ...

. This first encounter led to numerous collaborations between the gallerist and Gutai, including a 1958 exhibition of Gutai art at the

Martha Jackson Gallery Martha Jackson (; January 17, 1907 – July 4, 1969) was an American art dealer, gallery owner, and collector. Her New York City based Martha Jackson Gallery, founded in 1953, was groundbreaking in its representation of women and internatio ...

in New York, the group's first exhibition outside of Japan. Tapié also was present during Gutai's 1960 art event, "The International Sky Festival", held in Osaka. Some art historians have argued that Tapié was a negative influence on the group, encouraging the artists to pursue informel-style painting rather than their more innovative practices, such as performance and installation. In 1960, with architect

Luigi Moretti Luigi Walter Moretti (2 January 1907 – 14 July 1973) was an Italian architect. Active especially in Italy since the thirties, he designed buildings such as the Watergate Complex in Washington DC, The Academy of Fencing, and ''Il Girasole'' (" ...

:it:Luigi Moretti (architetto), Tapié co-founded the International Center of Aesthetic Research in

Turin, Italy Turin ( , Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The ...

hipp, 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. Tapié organized and curated scores of exhibitions of new and modern art in major cities all over the world, including not only

and

Turin Turin ( , Piedmontese language, Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital ...

but also

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus ( legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.46 ...

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and ...

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population of 907,976 within the city proper, 1,558,755 in the urban ar ...

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city ...

, and

Osaka is a designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the third most populous city in Japan, following Special wards of Tokyo and Yokohama. With a population of ...

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?"from Michel Tapié's ''Un art autre''", 1952), as quoted (in translation) in ''Art of our century'' (1988), page 495

Sources

*Chipp, Herschel B.
Theories of modern art; a source book by artists and critics
(Berkeley,

University of California The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, University of Califor ...

Press, 1968) *Le Pichon, Yann; and Jean Louis Ferrier
''Art of our century : the chronicle of western art, 1900 to the present''
alter D. Glanze, English translation(New York : Prentice Hall Editions, 1989) , ontains 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)

OCLC OCLC, Inc., doing business as OCLC, See also: is an American nonprofit cooperative organization "that provides shared technology services, original research, and community programs for its membership and the library community at large". It wa ...

57403312 *Tapié, Michel
Un art autre où il s'agit de nouveaux dévidages du réel
(

, Gabriel-Giraud et fils, 1952) OCLC 1110556 *

and Michel Tapié
''Antonio Tapies''
ic

, G. Wittenborn, 1959.

1090149 ote: 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''
(

, G. Wittenborn, 1956) OCLC 1127301 *Tapié, Michel
''Elaine Hamilton: Exhibition of Paintings''
(

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the n ...

: Fujikawa Gallery), April 12–18, 1961.

81011323 *Tapié, Michel
''Hans Hofmann : peintures 1962 : 23 avril-18 mai 1963.''
(

: Galerie Anderson-Mayer, 1963.) xhibition_catalogue_and_commentary:_Tapié_was_a_great_admirer_of_Hans_Hofmann.html" ;"title="Hans_Hofmann.html" ;"title="xhibition catalogue and commentary: Tapié was a great admirer of Hans Hofmann">xhibition catalogue and commentary: Tapié was a great admirer of Hans Hofmann">Hans_Hofmann.html" ;"title="xhibition catalogue and commentary: Tapié was a great admirer of Hans Hofmann">xhibition catalogue and commentary: Tapié was a great admirer of Hans HofmannOCLC: 62515192 *Tapié, Michel; Ossorio, Alfonso
''Pollock''
(

, 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

(

: El Instituto, 1964)

7889303 * Jirō Yoshihara; Shōzō Shimamoto; Michel Tapié; Gutai Bijutsu Kyōkai
''Gutai''
具体(具体美術協会, Nishinomiya-shi : Gutai Bijutsu Kyōkai, 1955–1965) apanese : Serial Publication : Periodical

53194339 orldcat "Other titles" information: Gutai art exhibition, Aventure informelle, International art of a new era, U.S.A., Japan, Europe, International Sky Festival, Osaka, 1960

References

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"

* ttps://archive.today/20010221201747/http://www2.ac-toulouse.fr/lyc-bellevue-toulouse/travelev/tapie.htm L'exposition "Tapié: un art autre" Information on 1997 Tapié exhibition in

Toulouse Toulouse ( , ; oc, Tolosa ) is the prefecture of the French department of Haute-Garonne and of the larger region of Occitania. The city is on the banks of the River Garonne, from the Mediterranean Sea, from the Atlantic Ocean and fr ...

Fluxugenova
historical essay on

Fluxus Fluxus was an international, interdisciplinary community of artists, composers, designers and poets during the 1960s and 1970s who engaged in experimental art performances which emphasized the artistic process over the finished product. Fluxus ...

mentioning the formative influence of the Gutaj group and its connection to Michel Tapié *Le grand Œil de Michel Tapié, de Franck Prazan (Sous la direction de), Baptiste Brun (Avec la contribution de), Juliette Evezard (Avec la contribution de), Edouard Lombard (Avec la contribution de), Paris, Skira, Applicat-Prazan, 2018 {{DEFAULTSORT:Tapie, Michel Art Informel and Tachisme painters French art critics 20th-century French painters 20th-century French male artists French male painters French curators French art directors 1909 births 1987 deaths French contemporary art French male non-fiction writers 20th-century French male writers