informel

Informel is a term with multiple uses, but it most prominently refers to a European postwar painting movement and to the broader French word meaning informal or formless.

In art, Art Informel (l’art informel) describes a loose grouping of abstract painting practices that emerged in the late 1940s and 1950s. The term was popularized by French critic Michel Tapié to describe works that prioritized materiality, gesture, and spontaneity over formal structure or geometric composition. Artists associated with informel favored tactile surfaces, irregular textures, and a sense of the formless (l’informe), often achieved through techniques such as thick impasto, scraping, staining, or burlap-like supports. The movement overlaps with, yet is distinct from, American Abstract Expressionism, sharing an interest in process and emotion but developing its own European vocabularies, including tachisme and various informal approaches.

Notable figures linked to Art Informel include Jean Fautrier, Hans Hartung, Georges Mathieu, Wols (Wolfgang Hauer), Pierre Soulages, and Alberto Burri, among others. Works often emphasize spontaneity, chance, and the material presence of paint and surface. The movement did not present a single manifesto or uniform style; instead, it encompassed a range of approaches that resisted clear, codified form. By the late 1950s and early 1960s, informel ideas influenced broader European abstraction and contributed to debates about spontaneity, autonomy of the image, and the role of the artist’s touch in painting.

Beyond art, informel is the French adjective meaning informal or formless. In sociology and economics, related terms describe informal or casual practices outside formal institutions, such as the informal sector of the economy. The word also appears in everyday usage to denote an unofficial or unstructured approach in various contexts.