8.3 — Postwar European Currents
In the aftermath of World War II, European artists grappled with ruin, reconstruction, and new freedoms. Diverse movements—from gestural Art Informel to collective CoBrA and experimental Gutai—pursued immediacy, material invention, and social renewal outside the New York-centered narrative.
Art Informel & Tachisme (France)
Loosely grouped painters favored spontaneous mark-making, stains, and texture over geometric order—parallel to but distinct from Abstract Expressionism.
- Jean Dubuffet: “Art Brut” aesthetic; thick impasto, sand, and tar capturing raw, anti-elite expression.
- Georges Mathieu: Calligraphic, rapid gestures performed in public; “lyrical abstraction.”
- Hans Hartung: Scraped and sprayed lines; controlled spontaneity.
Definition: Art Brut
“Raw art” championed by Dubuffet—works by children, outsiders, and the self-taught—valued for immediacy and freedom from academic convention.
CoBrA (Copenhagen, Brussels, Amsterdam, 1948–1951)
Collective of poets and painters embracing childlike imagery, bold color, and collaborative experimentation as a hopeful counter to wartime trauma.
- Asger Jorn: Vivid, rough-hewn figures; later tied to Situationist ideas.
- Karel Appel: Impastoed creatures and masks, primal energy.
- Corneille & Constant: Flattened, emblematic forms; Constant later explores utopian urbanism (“New Babylon”).
Gutai (Japan, 1954–1972)
Though not European, Gutai’s dialogue with European and American avant-gardes was pivotal. The group fused performance, material experiment, and interactivity.
- Kazuo Shiraga: Painted with his feet while swinging from ropes; action and body imprint.
- Saburo Murakami: “Passing Through” — bursting paper screens; art as event.
- Atsuko Tanaka: “Electric Dress” of lit bulbs; merging body and technology.
Definition: Happening (Proto)
Prefiguring Happenings, Gutai works treated time, audience, and environment as integral to the artwork, dissolving boundaries between object and action.
Nouveau Réalisme (France, 1960s)
Founded by Pierre Restany and artists seeking “new realism” of everyday materials and consumer culture.
- Arman: Accumulations and sliced objects encased in resin.
- César: Compressions of cars and scrap metal; expansions of polyurethane foam.
- Niki de Saint Phalle: “Shooting paintings” (Tirs) and later exuberant Nanas.
- Christo & Jeanne-Claude (early projects): Wrapped objects and spaces reframe perception.
ZERO & Light/Space Experiments (Germany/Netherlands/Italy)
Artists pursued purity of light, monochrome, and serial structure as a reset after war.
- Otto Piene: Light ballets and smoke drawings.
- Heinz Mack & Günther Uecker: Reflective surfaces, nails, kinetic reliefs.
- Piero Manzoni (Italy): “Achromes” of kaolin-soaked canvas; provocative editions (“Artist’s Breath,” “Artist’s Shit”).
Note: Parallel Paths
European postwar art ranged from existential surface (Informel) to social play (CoBrA), industrial critique (Nouveau Réalisme), and optical/light experiments (ZERO). These strands fed into later Pop, Conceptual, and performance art.
Looking Ahead
Next, Chapter 9.1 turns to Pop Art and Neo-Dada, where mass media, consumer icons, and appropriation redefine what counts as art in the 1960s.