Compose styles
Rather than blending styles toward a middle, this gives them roles. The first one carries the structure, the next comes in as the accent, and anything after that shows up in a single detail. Where they fight each other, 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 #fdfcab, #c6974c, #1c0a05.
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
Produce four original images that take their structure from Abstract Expressionism (style, 1940s–1950s) and their accent from Tachisme (style, 1945–1960). ## What to make Make the kind of thing Abstract Expressionism exists for: key visuals for concerts and theatre where emotional intensity has to arrive first, or book covers where one huge abstract ground carries the title alone. Choose one subject and hold it across all four. ## Structure comes from Abstract Expressionism - Vast canvases - Bodily brushwork - All-over composition - Drips and stains 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. ## Accent comes from Tachisme, used sparingly - Accumulations of stains and drips - Marks of rapid gesture - Arrangements without a centre - Contrast with reserves of white ground Let one material quality come from it: Fluid ink and thinned paint that stains, drips and splashes on a white ground. ## Colour and feeling Build the ground on #ddd4c5, carry the structure in #8d5541 and #252221, and let a single accent come from #c6974c. These are read off real works, so a direction rather than a fixed palette. Feeling to carry: exhilaration, rebellion, calm, play. ## Where they fight - Abstract Expressionism and Tachisme share no intent, so the contrast has to become the subject rather than something to smooth over. ## What goes wrong - 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. ## Across the four Keep the roles fixed in all four. Vary the framing, the scale and the arrangement so the set shows what this pairing can do rather than four versions of one picture. ## Constraints - Do not imitate, reference or name any specific artist, studio, brand, character or copyrighted work. - Do not reproduce the composition of an existing work. - Produce original compositions 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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