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The Others involved in Art autre (Art of Another Kind)

Michel Tapié and American art

“Either you were friends with Michel Tapié or you didn’t show your work at all.” This was how Kimber Smith, an American artist who lived in Paris from 1954 to 1964, summed up the major role played by the critic and exhibition curator Michel Tapié in spotting and promoting artists in Paris at the end of the Second World War.

At this time, France was an intense hub of activity in terms of art criticism, exhibitions and publications, which were attempting to open up new artistic horizons. In the 1940s and 1950s, Michel Tapié de Céleyran (1909-1987), a musician and distant descendant of Toulouse-Lautrec, became the artistic advisor to numerous galleries (René Drouin, Nina Dausset, Paul Facchetti, Rodolphe Stadler). Far removed from national quarrels, he was the first to promote an international vision of the art that he championed, showing a genuine interest in American art. Through a number of exhibitions and publications, Michel Tapié strove to demonstrate the contrasts and similarities between the French and American scenes.

Coming from a country that Michel Tapié considered to be devoid of artistic tradition, American artists – particularly those settled in Paris at the time – fed into his concept of Art autre: the idea of an international avant-garde characterized by an aesthetic of the informe or formless, which prioritized expressiveness and gave pride of place to the spontaneity of the artist’s gesture and their total freedom.

A complex and ambivalent figure, Tapié continued to hold a fascination for the artists that he championed. This is seen in the publication of Observations of Michel Tapié by the American artist Paul Jenkins in New York in 1956, a compilation of portraits of Tapié by different artists who all pay him homage. Paul Jenkins was mesmerized by the critic: “What a beautiful presence this man possesses. I was in Saint-Germain drinking a beer at the Flore; I look across the street and see Tapié at a bus stop. It was the first time I’d seen him from a distance. [...] The bus could easily have been a chariot of gladiators with six white horses on the point of taking off for the sun.”

Jean Dubuffet, Pain philosophique [Philosophical Bread], 1952

On a base of mixed oil paint and sand, Jean Dubuffet put a layer of Pierrolin, a synthetic medium much like a putty. Applied on the still wet base, the handprints create a raised landscape. Inspired by his voyages in the Sahara, Dubuffet, whilst staying in New York during the winter of 1951-52, produced the series of “Pierres philosophiques” [Philosophical Stones]. He experimented with the properties of new mediums, notably instructing and inspiring some young American artists later on.

As of 1945, Michel Tapié and Dubuffet were tied by a solid friendship and a fruitful collaboration. Tapié cited the artist as one of the major players in this “other art” which he theorized in his 1952 essay, concurrent with the production of this painting.

Dubuffet is one of those French artists whose work feels a strong echo in the United States, as is witnessed by his ties with Alfonso Ossorio who traveled to Paris to meet him in 1949, on Jackson Pollock’s recommendation.

Leon Golub, Colossal Torso II, 1959

On the edge of abstraction and figuration, this painting allows one to glimpse the shape of a body of which the contours seem to dissolve into the composition. The monumental format and the sculptural body evoke ancient art, which influenced Leon Golub since his voyage in Italy in 1956. Comprised of multiple layers of lacquer applied by dripping, the work presents effects of matter and friction which were characteristics of the technique perfected by the artist.

Engaged in American aviation, Golub went to Europe for the first time during the Second World War. Between 1959 and 1964, he resided in Paris with the artist Nancy Spero, his wife. Far from abstract expressionism, he developed a militant figurative painting style, marked by the trauma of the war. He rubbed elbows with painters of the New Figuration movement and exhibited alongside most notably Bernard Rancillac and Hervé Télémaque.

Ossorio, Dubuffet, Tapié

A trio at the heart of transatlantic exchanges

Rather than being down to just one man, the discovery and promotion of American art by Michel Tapié was the result of a network of players, in which the French and American painters Jean Dubuffet and Alfonso Ossorio played a key role. Tapié met Dubuffet in 1944, collected his work and wrote the preface for his Corps de Dames exhibition at the Pierre Matisse Gallery in New York in 1951. Dubuffet was actually one of the French artists most supported in the United States in this period and his work particularly interested the American collector and artist Alfonso Ossorio, who arrived in Paris in 1949. The French artist’s painting, consisting of thick, heterogeneous material, along with his ideological positions against bourgeois culture, influenced many American artists including Leon Golub, who moved to France in the late 1950s.

In Paris, Ossorio was introduced by Dubuffet to Tapié, who organized the Peintures initiatiques d’Alfonso Ossorio event in 1951. He was also the friend and patron of Willem de Kooning and Jackson Pollock: it was he who brought Tapié a dozen canvases by Pollock in 1952 for the latter’s first solo show in France, for which the introduction in the “Jackson Pollock with us” catalogue sets the tone: “Here for the first time in Paris is a set of works by Jackson Pollock, one of the most prestigious representatives of today’s American pictorial adventure. I am delighted to throw this kind of bomb into the Parisian artistic scene, which is too often sure of a lock-tight guarantee.” Jackson Pollock’s work would have a distinct influence on Ossorio, whose painting, which was initially marked by Surrealist principles, turned towards Abstract Expressionism from the early 1950s.

Alfonso Ossorio, Advent #1, 1951

Familiar with theology, Alfonso Ossorio frequently painted religious subjects, such as this Crucifixion which occupies the totality of the picture. The crucified is identified by the shape of the Cross with which they can be confused with. The palette is reduced to the black in the background, unevenly covering the white of the canvas, and the impulsive tracing of the figures in a strident red.

In 1951, in Paris, Ossorio was the link between the American and French artistic circles. He met Michel Tapié at the Drouin Gallery who, a few months later, organized his first Parisian exhibition, Peintures initiatiaues d’Alfonso Ossorio [Alfonso Ossorio’s Initiation Paintings], at the new Studio Facchetti. Jean Dubuffet signed the preface of the catalogue. The success of the event opened the American artistic scene to French criticism.

Willem de Kooning, Abstraction, 1949-1950

Constructed out of contrasts between figuration and abstraction, real and imaginary motifs, symbols of death and vibrant colors, this work shows the artist’s capacity to gather diverse influences into one very personal style. The forceful, spontaneous gesture is one of the characteristics of abstract expressionism of which he is a pioneer. A Dutchman, de Kooning emigrated to the United States in 1926, where he met Jackson Pollock in 1942: together they developed an expressive abstractionism which distinguishes itself by an invasion of motifs on the canvas (all-over), without hierarchy, and traces of the artist’s spontaneous gesture (action painting). De Kooning is presented in France as of the 1950s by Michel Tapié, who discovers his work via the collector Alfonso Ossorio.

Tapié, wishing to include the artist in his 1951 exhibition Véhémences confrontées [Confronted Vehemence], included a work similar in format and in composition to this one.

Confrontations

In 1951, Michel Tapié and the artist Georges Mathieu organized the Véhémences confrontées exhibition at the Nina Dausset gallery. As the poster stated, the exhibition showcased “for the first time in France the confrontation of the extreme trends in American, Italian and Parisian non-figurative painting presented by Michel Tapié”. The hanging offered an unprecedented display of works by Jackson Pollock and Willem De Kooning. They were teamed with works by several American artists present in Paris such as Alfred Russell and Jean-Paul Riopelle (Canadian), and compared with artists from the Paris School, including Hans Hartung, Georges Mathieu and Wols. The manifesto text associated with the exhibition highlights the theoretical construct put forward by Tapié, who was looking to redefine the contours of abstraction far from the critical debates prevailing in France at the time.

It was on this basis that Michel Tapié assimilated and confronted these two artistic scenes the following year within the framework of an exposition and a book entitled Un art autre (Art of another kind). This loosely defined concept of Art autre advocated indeterminacy and the unknown. Tapié promoted an “art of now”, making a clean break with tradition and linking the creative act to a kind of heroism, seen by the critic as a “total adventure”. In the foreword to the book, Tapié argues: “Today’s art can only be astounding”.

Alfred Otto Wolfgang Schulze, known as Wols,La Turquoise [The Turquoise], 1949

At the center of the composition are bursting streaks of red, gray, and white paint... Emigrated to Paris in 1932, the German Wols painted with rapidity and brand new spontaneity, reflecting the intensity of his emotions at the end of the Second World War.

Wols became one of the pioneers of so-called lyrical abstraction and of the informal art defended by Michel Tapié. His first solo exhibition at the René Drouin Gallery in 1947 came as a shock to the public. Georges Mathieu and Tapié on the other hand were impressed by the quality and strength of these works. Defended by these two men, Wols was featured in the H.W.P.S.M.T.B exhibition at Galerie Allendy in 1948 and Véhémences confrontées [Confronted Vehemence] at the Nina Dausset Gallery in 1951, the year of his death. His work left a lasting mark on the American artist Paul Jenkins who discovers it following his arrival in Paris in 1953.

Alfred Russell, La Rue de Nevers, 1949

The title may refer to a historical Parisian street by the banks of the Seine or to the city of Nevers where Russell’s wife was from. In any event, this geographical evocation is only a pretext in this abstract composition, clear and airy, structured around the central axis formed by long and thick lines of color. The oval shadow surrounding it gives depth to the field on which a multitude of fine lines comes to sketch a spider web. Simultaneously active in the circles of abstraction in New York and in Paris, and a close friend of Georges Mathieu, Alfred Russell was among the first American artists that Michel Tapié highlighted, first in the exhibition White and Black as of 1948, then in Véhémences confrontées [Confronted Vehemence] as well as in his essay Un art autre [An Art of Another Kind].

Russell was also an engraver, trained at Atelier 17, a veritable nidus of confluences between French and Anglo-Saxon artists.

David Budd, Anse Saint Roch [Saint Roch Cove], 1961

From the Saint Roch Cove to the center of Old Antibes, nothing remains on the canvas but an abstract evocation of a colorful match between sandy brown and deep blue. As is often the case in David Budd’s art, the minimalist composition is crossed by a dynamic line, itself intersected by a smaller line, while the color fields are animated by the gesture and the work that’s gone into the texture.

David Budd converted to the abstract expressionism of postwar New York, where he often met Jackson Pollock, Franz Kline, and Willem de Kooning. In reaction to the emergence of American Pop Art, he settled in Paris between 1960 and 1968, benefiting from the cooperation that Michel Tapié was developing between New York and Parisian galleries. Indeed, Tapié was one of the great defenders of his work, which he exhibited several times over in the Parisian gallery of Rodolphe Stadler.

Georges Mathieu, Homage to Louis XI, 1950

On a gray background, black strokes are crossed, curved, and broadly brushed, reflecting the spontaneous gestures and speed of execution dear to the artist. Since 1945, Georges Mathieu painted with a tube, pressing it directly onto the canvas without any prior sketching nor possible repentance later. Fascinated by the Middle Ages, he regularly referenced the history of France for his titles. A pioneer of lyrical abstraction, Mathieu met critic Michel Tapié in 1947. Director of public relations for the transatlantic shipping company United States Lines, Mathieu became, alongside Tapié, one of the advocates of North American abstract art.

In 1948, he confronted American and French painting during an exhibition at the Galerie du Montparnasse. Three years later, he participated in the historical exhibition Véhémences confrontées [Confronted Vehemence] at the Nina Dausset Gallery.

Jean Paul Riopelle, Crépusculaire [Twilight], 1953

Always searching for new artistic practices, Jean Paul Riopelle abandoned the paintbrush in 1949 in favor of the spatula. The paint, pressed directly onto the canvas, is spread in small touches of black covering the entire surface. Blue, red, or even white come to warm this twilight atmosphere. This work belongs to the Mosaics series, so baptized by the art critic Georges Duthuit.

A Canadian artist, Riopelle discovered France during a stay in 1946. Seduced by the light in Paris, he multiplied the number of voyages between the two continents before definitively installing himself in the French capital in 1948. The following year, the gallerist Nina Dausset offered him his first solo exhibition and invited him to participate in the 1951 exhibition Véhémences confrontées [Confronted Vehemence].

A Pacific School?

In 1954, Tapié sketched the outline of a hypothetical Pacific School – a far cry from the New York School – bringing together artists from America’s West Coast, such as Lawrence Calcagno, Claire Falkenstein, Mark Tobey and Sam Francis. From Seattle to San Francisco, Tapié underscored the influence of the East on these artists who, in parts of America more marked by Asia, were developing a new concept of space in their work: “Something that is opposed to the three-dimensional space of a finished world; we find ourselves in the presence of an infinite and continuous world expressed in a flat painting”. For Tapié, America played a fundamental role as a link between East and West that was revealed in the art that he promoted. Nonetheless, this idea of a School should be qualified: while certain artists grouped together by Tapié, such as Claire Falkenstein, identified with it, others, like Sam Francis, were highly dubious about this concept, pointing out (undoubtedly correctly) their uniquely individual approach.

Claire Falkenstein, Sign of U (Small Sun), Circa 1959-1962

A tangle of metal cables and pieces build a net of an indeterminate shape. The elements, trapped in the recesses of the wire, punctuate it like inert obstacles. Sign of U – according to the American shortcut – fits in the Sun series, started in 1953. Here, Claire Falkenstein explores matter and space and reveals her interest in the theory of the universe by Albert Einstein. Yet the construction evokes less solar radiance and more organic elements – plants, corals or spider webs.

It was in Paris, where she lived from 1950 to 1963, that the sculptor created constructed shapes based on the linear principle: “Everything is drawing – sculpture is drawing,” she said. She was very close to Michel Tapié who developed, to qualify her work, the concept of “spatial trellis” and devoted many exhibitions to her, including an important monograph in 1958.

Sam Francis, Red and Yellow, 1953

After some first abstract works where white dominated, Sam Francis reintroduced bright and vibrant colors in his work as of 1953. Here; the flamboyant red and yellow invade the canvas, creating an inextricable network of lines. The lines in the shape of commas seem to liquefy themselves and the medium, always more fluid, slides down the surface. Francis’ move in 1952 into a larger workshop, rue Tiphaine, and his discovery of Monet’s Water Lilies cycle at the Musée de l’Orangerie the following year, certainly contributed to gradual changes of scale in his works: the lengthening of the format for Red and Yellow is just the beginning. In 1953, the artist and his wife Muriel Goodwin stayed for a few weeks in the house of the Matisse family in Aix-en-Provence. The discovery of the light of the south and its dazzling colors nourished this new artistic period.

Mark Tobey, Left Bank, 1955

More or less evanescent symbols resembling calligraphy spill over the whole of the sheet. Sensations of bubbling and tingling can be felt. The commotion propagates itself and the suspended elements seem to slip out of the frame.

Mark Tobey certainly produced this work during a stay in Paris. Its title refers to the area of Saint-Germain-des-Prés where artists’ workshops, especially Americans’, were located alongside the galleries that defended abstraction. This is where the artist exhibited regularly, especially at the gallery of Jeanne Bucher, whom he met in 1945 in New York. Jeanne Bucher acquired one of his pieces, Animal Totem, and aimed to present his work in Paris. She unfortunately died the following year, but her gallery exhibited for the first time the works of Tobey in 1955, the year of this drawing.

Henri Michaux, Untitled, Circa 1948-1949

Published in Un art autre [An Art of Another Kind], this watercolor is emblematic of the esthetic defended by Tapié: the priority given to the spontaneous gesture, the abandonment of the principle of composition… On the sheet of paper, worked in black and an orange-hued ochre, a sort of cellular shape seems to expand. The motif of a cell heralds Sam Francis’ compositions of the 1950s, whom Michaux has known for a long time. This theme is also invested in his literary work when he writes in 1962 that “everything […] must begin anew […] by the cells” (Vent et poussières [Wind and Dust]).

Artist as much as writer and poet, Michaux was a friend of Michel Tapié who possessed several of his works and dedicated articles and exhibitions to him, such as one for his drawings at the Drouin Gallery in April 1948. The following year, they produced an artist’s book, Poésie pour pouvoir [Poetry for Power], together.

Lawrence Calcagno, Untitled, 1954

From a large horizontal layer emerges a dense network of lines and splashes which spreads along the canvas. The very dark area in the middle is worked by a succession of colored layers which seem to have been scraped, even scratched in some places. Out of this general darkness arise lighter tones such as green or red.

After studying at the California School of Fine Arts in San Francisco from 1947 to 1950, Lawrence Calcagno arrived in France thanks to his G.I. Bill benefits. He followed workshops for a few months at l’Académie de la Grande Chaumière before exploring Europe. Back in Paris in 1952, his work was defended by art critic Michel Tapié who presented his paintings during a solo exhibition in 1955 at the Studio Facchetti.