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 Art Informel: Centreless fields running to the edge, composed by density rather than by figure
- Type
- Set in Art Informel's manner (Few words set large, part of them buried in the scratched surface), and let Lyrical Abstraction's lettering (A light-weight seriffed face set small at one corner, never crossing the centre of the wash) appear only where you want the eye to catch.
- Material
- Ground in Art Informel's material (Impasto, plaster and tar in earth and ash tones on thick paper, scraped and torn); bring in exactly one thing from Lyrical Abstraction (Thinned colour on an absorbent ground, so the pigment spreads and the edge is decided by the substrate rather than by the hand).
- Colour
- Build on #d9bbaf, #7e6145, #1f0907 and admit one accent from #f7f5d6, #e9401d, #232c62.
Where they fight
- Art Informel and Lyrical Abstraction share no intent, so the contrast has to become the subject rather than something to smooth over.
- Art Informel and Lyrical Abstraction both belong to Postwar Abstract Painting, so the difference is small. Push the roles further apart than feels comfortable.
Caution
- Art Informel Avoid faking the texture with clean digital filters—the style lives on real material resistance, and simulated grunge reads instantly as decor.
- Lyrical Abstraction Adding colours muddies the layers and loses the transparency, and one confident stroke in the middle turns the field into a logo, destroying the drift the style is made of.
Image prompt
Produce four original images that take their structure from Art Informel (style, 1945–1960) and their accent from Lyrical Abstraction (style, 1947–1970s). ## What to make Make the kind of thing Art Informel exists for: texture-led art direction for craft, ceramics or fashion houses, or cover art and interiors where raw matter carries the emotion. Choose one subject and hold it across all four. ## Structure comes from Art Informel - Traces of impasto and scratching - Stains that never settle into form - A range of earth and ash tones - Tears and exposure of the support Composition: Centreless fields running to the edge, composed by density rather than by figure. Type and lettering: Few words set large, part of them buried in the scratched surface. ## Accent comes from Lyrical Abstraction, used sparingly - Flowing brushwork - Layers of bleed and overlap - Light, transparent colour - Composition without a centre Let one material quality come from it: Thinned colour on an absorbent ground, so the pigment spreads and the edge is decided by the substrate rather than by the hand. ## Colour and feeling Build the ground on #d9bbaf, carry the structure in #7e6145 and #1f0907, and let a single accent come from #e9401d. These are read off real works, so a direction rather than a fixed palette. Feeling to carry: technique, play, nostalgia, calm, exhilaration, intimacy. ## Where they fight - Art Informel and Lyrical Abstraction share no intent, so the contrast has to become the subject rather than something to smooth over. - Art Informel and Lyrical Abstraction both belong to Postwar Abstract Painting, so the difference is small. Push the roles further apart than feels comfortable. ## What goes wrong - Art Informel: Avoid faking the texture with clean digital filters—the style lives on real material resistance, and simulated grunge reads instantly as decor. - Lyrical Abstraction: Adding colours muddies the layers and loses the transparency, and one confident stroke in the middle turns the field into a logo, destroying the drift the style is made of. ## 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
- Art Informel 1945–1960 / Style / Postwar Abstract Painting
A postwar European abstraction that refused both geometric composition and figuration, making the surface out of matter and the traces of the act itself. Thickly piled paint, scratches, stains and tears present a state before form. The source of all design that pushes the physicality of material to the front. Tachisme names the same paintings seen from the speed of the gesture, and Lyrical Abstraction names them seen from the lyric side.
- Lyrical Abstraction 1947–1970s / Style / Postwar Abstract Painting
Abstraction that leans neither on geometric discipline nor on violent gesture, assembling a lyric out of flowing strokes and bleeding colour. The name was born in Paris and was later applied in America to thinly painted, stained canvases. A reference point whenever softness and lightness have to be designed.
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