Lyrical abstraction

The Lyrical Abstraction is a style of painting that emerged in the late 1940s. The term Lyrical Abstraction was coined by the French painter Georges Mathieu in 1947. ( French abstraction lyrique ) for a group of French painters who are regarded as forerunners and representatives of the Informel . In lyric abstraction, instead of the constructive and geometric elements of abstract painting , spontaneous improvisations and directly artistically implemented sensations were used.

History and Development

Lyrical abstraction describes two interconnected but clearly separate movements in modern painting after the Second World War , in Europe in the 1940s and 1950s on the one hand and in America in the 1960s and 1970s on the other.

Lyrical abstraction in Europe

The European Lyrical Abstraction was an art movement that was born in Paris in the 1940s with the “Nouvelle École de Paris ” after the Second World War. At that time France tried to find its own - also artistic - identity after the occupation and the collaboration.

Some art critics saw the new abstraction as an attempt to restore Paris to the artistic status it had before the war as the capital of art. Lyrical Abstraction was also an artistic competition between Paris and the new American school of painting, Abstract Expressionism, which emerged in New York City through artists such as Jackson Pollock , Willem de Kooning, and many others. One therefore speaks of the (Second) École de Paris opposite the New York School .

The lyrical abstraction was not only in contrast to the previous cubist and surrealist movements, but also to the geometric abstraction (or "cold abstraction"). Lyrical abstraction was one of the first consistent implementations of the teachings of Wassily Kandinsky , as one of the fathers of abstraction. For the artists in France, lyrical abstraction was a new way of personal expression.

The Drouin Gallery in Paris was one of the centers of lyrical abstraction, where many exhibitions were held. The works of Jean Le Moal , Gustave Singier , Alfred Manessier , Roger Bissière , Wols and others were shown here.

The style got a special boost when Georges Mathieu organized two important exhibitions: "Abstraction Lyrique" in the Palais du Luxembourg in 1947 and then the exhibition "HWPSMTB" (with Hans Hartung , Wols , Francis Picabia , the sculptor François Stahly , Georges Mathieu , Michel Tapié and Camille Bryen ) in 1948. Lyrical abstraction, however , was supplanted as the predominant art movement towards the end of the 1950s (from 1957) by New Realism , which was defended by the art critic Pierre Restany . Even Yves Klein broke the boundaries of this style u. a. with his anthropométries , which take up improvisation but put figurative elements in scene.

Representative of European lyric abstraction

Artists who painted abstract lyrically from 1945 to 1956 and later.

An exhibition entitled The soaring lyrical Paris 1945-1956 , in which the works of 60 painters were shown, was held in Paris at the Musée du Luxembourg from April to August 2006.

Lyrical abstraction in America

Ronnie Landfield , For William Blake 1968, 110 × 256 "

Lyrical Abstraction in the United States was an American abstract art movement that primarily took place in New York City , Los Angeles , Washington, DC , and then also in Toronto and London in the 1960s to 1970s.

The American lyrical abstraction was characterized by an intuitive and relaxed use of colors, spontaneous expression, illusionistic spaces, the use of acrylic colors, process images and images in which other painting techniques and new technological processes were used. Lyrical abstraction described a direction that led away from minimalism in painting to a new path towards freer expressionism .

The painters of lyrical abstraction reacted against the predominant formalism (including Pop Art ) and geometric abstraction in the style of the 1960s and turned to new, experimental, free painterly, expressive and abstract pictorial designs.

American Lyric Abstraction referred to the spirit of abstract expressionism, color field painting, and European tachism of the 1940s and 1950s.

" Lyrical Abstraction " in the US was coined as a term by Larry Aldrich (founder of the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum in Ridgefield , Connecticut ) in 1969. " Lyrical Abstraction " was also the name of an important exhibition that had its origins in the Aldrich Museum and was shown in numerous other museums in the United States between 1969 and 1971 beyond the Whitney Museum of American Art . So lyrical abstraction was primarily an artistic trend in America in the 1960s and early 1970s.

Representative of American lyrical abstraction

Many artists only deal with part of their work.

Literature and Sources

Murken-Altrogge, Christa / Murken, Axel Hinrich; Processes of Freedom - From Expressionism to Soul and Body Art ; Cologne 1985, ISBN 3-7701-1756-5
Lyrical Abstraction , exhibition catalog, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York 1971
Lyrical Abstraction , exhibition catalog, the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield, Connecticut 1970.

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