For Frieze Masters 2019 Dickinson Gallery will present Lyrical Abstraction: Rediscovering Freedom in Post-war Europe. Celebrating the spontaneity of the Art Informel movement, Dickinson will showcase works by Dubuffet, Mathieu, Fontana, Tàpies and Millares.
Lyrical Abstraction, also known Art Informel or Tachisme, was a pivotal European Post-war artistic movement drawing together artists, philosophers, poets and academics with a shared desire to break free from traditions, rules and restrictions. The movement originated in Paris before spreading to other parts of Europe and found its stylistic antecedents in the abstractions of Kandinsky, Klee and Dubuffet, and in the Automatism of Surrealists like Masson and Tanguy.
Positioning themselves against the planning and precision of Geometric Abstraction, the originators of Lyrical Abstraction advocated art that was spontaneous and calligraphic, often incorporating non-traditional media such as sand, dust, string, tar or jute sacks.
Although there was a great deal of cross-cultural dialogue and engagement, the Lyrical Abstraction movement, a relatively brief moment in the 1940s and 1950s, has been largely overlooked – both historically and commercially – in comparison to its counterpart, Abstract Expressionism, in America.
For Frieze Masters, Dickinson will continue the tradition of themed stands with a range of multi-media works by Paris-based founders of Lyrical Abstraction such as Mathieu and Riopelle, as well as Italian examples, including one of the early Bucchi by Fontana and examples from Burri’s important Composizioni and Plastiche series’; and highlights from Post-war Spain by Tàpies, Chillida and Millares. The Gallery will once again work with designer Alex Clissen of Socle Studio(New York & Brussels), following a successful collaboration for Beauty, Shared at TEFAF New York in May.
Previous Frieze Masters exhibitions include Formed from Nature: Barbara Hepworth (2018); Expressionism in Europe (2017); Surrealist Revolution (2016); Masters of Cubism (2015); Picasso at the Bateau Lavoir (2014); and Landscape Revisited (2013).
Notes to Editors
Further Press Information & Images:
Susie Lawson | Director, Branch Arts
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