fautrier

Fautrier refers to Jean Fautrier (1898–1964), a French painter and sculptor who played a central role in the development of postwar European painting. He was a leading figure in the Parisian avant-garde and is associated with the informal, material-oriented approach known as tachisme.

Fautrier is best known for his Têtes and Otages series from the early 1940s. In these works he built up relief on canvas using massed pigment, plaster and other materials, creating sculptural forms that convey a sense of weight and anonymity. The resulting surfaces blend painting and sculpture and are regarded as important precursors to matter painting and other forms of informel abstraction.

In the 1950s and 1960s, Fautrier continued to experiment with surface, gesture, and scale, moving toward more expansive painterly abstractions while maintaining an ongoing interest in the tactile properties of material. His work helped broaden the possibilities for how surface texture and materiality could function within modern painting.

Fautrier’s works are represented in major public collections around the world, and his practice is recognized as a significant contribution to mid-20th-century French art. His influence extended to later artists who explored the physicality of paint and the interplay between sculpture and painting in postwar abstraction.