He turned to abstract art during the mid-1950s under the impact of American abstract painting, becoming identified with the French
style of Lyrical Abstraction.
Götz developed his distinctive
brand of lyrical abstraction following a period of derivative style - hopping, with hints of Miró, Picasso, and Pollock especially evident in the early works on view here.
For Egan the results clearly identify a masterful handling of the paint that fuses the motion and drive
of lyrical abstraction with overlaid and still forms and shapes of defined instances of paint that bring to mind Hans Hofmann, or the mosaic paintings of Jean Paul Riopelle.
Downing's surfaces, such as in the marvelous «Abstract Composition» (1970) and «Recall» (1975) are much smoother and cooler than Levee's, by which he achieves a delightful
form of lyrical abstraction that deserves acknowledgment superior to what he has received until now.
Artworks that can accurately be described as
works of Lyrical Abstraction tend to deviate from the tendencies that are prevalent in movements such as Abstract Expressionism, Cubism and Surrealism.
Entering a
period of lyrical abstraction that explores the materials and possibilities of a newly developing consumer culture, the exhibition includes her later works, such as the Raumfahrt (Space Travel)(1956) as well as Um Einen Roten Mund (Around a Red Mouth)(c. 1967) which joyously makes use of cut - outs from colour - print and popular culture, incorporating red lips, petticoats and crystals.
A rare woman
painter of the Lyrical Abstraction of Postwar Europe, Huguette Arthur Bertrand was active in the Parisian art scene, alongside Pierre Soulagesand, Hans Hartung, Zao Wou - ki, Chu Teh - Chun and others.
Considered the
founder of Lyrical Abstraction — a movement distinct from geometric abstraction in the organic style of its forms — and the organizer of the «Abstraction Lyrique» exhibition held in Paris in 1947, Georges Mathieu is best known for his large - scale paintings featuring curving calligraphic lines.
Whether working purely from imagination or from deep abstractions of visual phenomena, the
artists of Lyrical Abstraction focus on the formal relations within each piece.
In post war decades, the abstract expressionism slid into different fields of op art and geometric abstraction in United States, while the European answer was the
invention of lyrical abstraction, art informel and political abstraction in the works of CoBrA members Karel Appel, Constant and Asger Jorn.
Uslé takes on the formidable challenge to make a case for the visual and intellectual vitality of abstract art... He has set about re-investing the
language of lyrical abstraction with intensity and purposefulness.»
They frequently evoke a less self - consciously aesthetic
version of Lyrical Abstraction, but the checklist reveals that their stains involve all sorts of natural substances — spirulina, nettles, kombucha, yew berries, the urine of Ms. Dodd's dog — along with charcoal, mixed pigments and graphite.
Although the Russian painter Wassily Kandinsky (1866 - 1944) can be said to have pioneered the elegant combination of narrative, form and colour which is the
basis of Lyrical Abstraction, the tendency emerged at an exhibition entitled «L'Imaginaire», which was held at the Galerie du Luxembourg in Paris, in 1947, and which included works by Hans Hartung (1904 - 89), Wols (Alfred Otto Wolfgang Schulze)(1913 - 51), Jean - Paul Riopelle (1923 - 2002), and others.
In the past she has explored a range of techniques such as staining and pouring typically associated with earlier
generations of lyrical abstraction, yet for her it all seems to have been an experiment in how phenomenal gesture might translate the beautiful through an awareness of its inherent empirical properties.
«The Gesture and the Sign» features recent works by a range of international artists that take their cue from pictorial
aspects of lyrical abstraction.
I've written before about the
suppression of Lyrical Abstraction but even I am appalled by the arrogant disrespect that The Whitney Museum displays towards American artists and to the American art public.
During the late forties, when painting was becoming physically big, angst - ridden, and unprecedentedly theoretical in its exploration of new modes of non-representational painting, MacIver kept her canvases compact and continued developing an intimate
brand of lyrical abstraction that remained mimetically based.
This American
form of Lyrical Abstraction is exemplified in works by Helen Frankenthaler (b. 1928), and Jules Olitski (1922 - 2007), among others.
Instead, he developed a unique
style of Lyrical Abstraction - frequently referred to as Abstract Impressionism - whose shimmering forms were reminiscent of the late Impressionist paintings of water lilies by Claude Monet.
As a pioneer
of Lyrical Abstraction, he made images through the use of layers and bold brushwork, rejecting geometry, and building a connection with the natural world.
A major pioneer
of Lyrical Abstraction, a gestural and personal form of abstraction, along with Hans Hartung and Pierre Soulages, Gérard Schneider was shown in Paris at the Galerie Louis Carré as early as 1950.
Its generally a platform for Robin Greenwood who used to run a gallery (Poussin) promoting only a «certain type»
of lyrical abstraction.
After her return to France, she rapidly became one of the best - known exponents of Art Informel (best understood as «formless improvisation»), specializing in the style
of Lyrical Abstraction, (also related to French Tachisme), alongside Wols (Alfred Otto Wolfgang Sculze)(1913 - 51), Pierre Soulages (b. 1919), Georges Mathieu (1921 - 2012), Nicolas de Stael (1914 - 55), Alfred Manessier (1911 - 93), Serge Poliakoff (1906 - 69), and Jean - Paul Riopelle (1923 - 2002).
He was one of the major pioneers
of Lyrical Abstraction, a gestural and personal form of abstraction.
Wols was the pseudonym of Alfred Otto Wolfgang Schulze, a painter, and photographer considered a pioneer
of Lyrical Abstraction.
«The Gesture and the Sign» features recent works by a group of artists that take their cue from pictorial aspects
of lyrical abstraction.