Tachisme

French style of abstract painting current in the 1940s and 1950s, the European equivalent to abstract expressionism. Breaking free from the restraints of cubism, the Tachistes adopted a novel, spontaneous approach to brushwork, typified by all-over blotches of impastoed colour and dribbled paint, or swirling calligraphy applied straight from the tube, as in the work of Georges Mathieu. The terms L'Art Informel, meaning gestural or action painting, and abstraction lyrique (‘lyrical abstraction’) are also used to describe the style.

Other prominent Tachistes were the German-born painters Hans Hartung (1904-1989) and A O Wolfgang Schulze Wols (1913-1951). The US abstract painter Sam Francis was greatly influenced by the style.