# Art Informel (アンフォルメル)

> 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.

- IndexStyle No.471 — https://indexstyle.org/styles/art-informel
- Kind: Style · Family: Gestural Abstraction · Era: 1945–1960
- Mood: Technology, Play, Nostalgia
- Color cues: #e9e6dd / #67635d / #171615 (cues taken from reference works, not a fixed palette)

## Defining characteristics

- Traces of impasto and scratching
- Stains that never settle into form
- A range of earth and ash tones
- Tears and exposure of the support

## Best used for

- Texture-led art direction for craft, ceramics or fashion houses
- Cover art and interiors where raw matter carries the emotion

## Research method

This entry records a historical style; derive the treatment from its sources rather than a fixed recipe:

- Minimal, quiet type kept clear of the matter, or scratched crudely into it
- Centreless fields of material incident; composition by density, not by figure
- Impasto, plaster and tar in earth and ash tones; scraped, stained and torn supports

## What to avoid

Avoid faking the texture with clean digital filters—the style lives on real material resistance, and simulated grunge reads instantly as decor.

## Application checklist

Before calling a piece an application of this style, check it against the defining characteristics:

- [ ] Traces of impasto and scratching
- [ ] Stains that never settle into form
- [ ] A range of earth and ash tones
- [ ] Tears and exposure of the support
- [ ] At least one reference work below has been studied directly
- [ ] The caution above ("What to avoid") has been addressed

## Related styles

- **Tachisme (タシスム)** — A European abstraction named after the tache—the stain—that gives the leading role to the chance of touch and drip. Planned composition is abandoned; the very speed at which paint lands and flows becomes the order of the surface. Within Art Informel, the name that focuses on the swiftness of the gesture. → https://indexstyle.org/styles/tachisme
- **Gutai (具体美術協会)** — Acts directly on body, mud, paper, water, smoke and light bulbs — events where spirit does not rule material, and each exposes the other's nature. → https://indexstyle.org/styles/gutai

## Further study

- The naming by Michel Tapié
- The difference from American Abstract Expressionism
- The exchange with the Gutai group

## Reference works

- Wols によるコンポジション — Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0 — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wols%20composition%201507416.jpg
- Jean Dubuffet《L'arbre biplan》1968 — Wikimedia Commons / CC BY 2.0 — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:L'arbre%20biplan%20(1968)%20-%20Jean%20Dubuffet%20(1901%20-%201985)%20(23420452431).jpg

## Source of record

- Tate — Art Terms: Art Informel — https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/a/art-informel

## Machine surfaces

- JSON: https://indexstyle.org/api/styles/art-informel
- Image-generation prompt (legally clean): https://indexstyle.org/styles/art-informel/prompt.txt
- MCP: https://indexstyle.org/mcp (tools: search_styles, get_style, compose_styles; prompts: image-prompt, apply-style)

## 日本語

戦後ヨーロッパで、幾何学的な構成も具象も拒み、物質と行為の痕跡そのものを画面にした抽象。厚く盛られた絵具、掻き傷、滲み、破れが、形になる前の状態を提示する。素材の物質感を前面に出す設計の源流。

特徴: 厚塗りと掻き傷の痕跡／形を成さない滲み／土と灰の色域／支持体の破れと露出
注意: 表面的な記号へ還元せず、時代・地域・技術・制作主体の文脈を確認する。