Compose two styles
Rather than blending two styles into a middle, this assigns them roles: one carries the structure, the other appears as an accent. Where the two fight, it says so before you start.
How to divide the work
- Composition
- Follow Abstract Expressionism: Refuse a center and carry stroke density to every edge
- Type
- Set in Abstract Expressionism's manner (Keep words to a few and place them clear of the paint), and let Tachisme's lettering (One quiet grotesque, small and stable, set against the moving marks) appear only where you want the eye to catch.
- Material
- Ground in Abstract Expressionism's material (Thick paint and poured washes on a large support, drips left visible); bring in exactly one thing from Tachisme (Fluid ink and thinned paint that stains, drips and splashes on a white ground).
- Colour
- Build on #ddd4c5, #8d5541, #252221 and admit one accent from #e9e6dd, #67635d, #171615.
Where they fight
- Abstract Expressionism and Tachisme share no intent, so the contrast has to become the subject rather than something to smooth over.
Caution
- Abstract Expressionism Scattering energetic strokes as decoration skips each artist's method, the postwar politics and the tie between scale and body, and with neither density nor a record of decisions it reads as a dirty backdrop.
- Tachisme Avoid retouching or composing the splash after the fact—corrected gestures lose the recorded speed that is the style's entire content.
Image prompt
An original image that takes its structure from Abstract Expressionism (Style, 1940s–1950s) and its accent from Tachisme (Style, 1945–1960). Structural cues: Vast canvases; Bodily brushwork; All-over composition; Drips and stains. Accent cues, used sparingly: Accumulations of stains and drips; Marks of rapid gesture; Arrangements without a centre; Contrast with reserves of white ground. Composition: Refuse a center and carry stroke density to every edge. Type and lettering: Keep words to a few and place them clear of the paint. Let one material quality come from the second style: Fluid ink and thinned paint that stains, drips and splashes on a white ground. Mood: Exhilaration, Rebellion, Calm, Play. Color: build on #ddd4c5, #8d5541, #252221 with a single accent drawn from #e9e6dd, #67635d, #171615. Constraints: do not imitate, reference or name any specific artist, studio, brand, character or copyrighted work. Produce an original composition in the general period languages described above.
Related entries
- Abstract Expressionism 1940s–1950s / Style / Postwar American Art
On huge canvases, with bodily strokes, drips, stains and broad fields of color, what stays on the surface is the act of painting and strong inner feeling rather than a depicted subject.
- Tachisme 1945–1960 / Style / Postwar Abstract Painting
A European abstraction named for the tache, or stain, which gives the leading role to the chance of a brushmark and a drip. Planned composition is abandoned, and the speed at which paint lands and runs becomes the order of the surface. Within Art Informel this is the name that fixes on the swiftness of the gesture.
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