Arte Informale

also: Informal art · Tachismo

movement c. 1945-1960 Italy Europe

Arte informale is the Italian face of the postwar turn against rational abstraction. Named by the critic Michel Tapié in 1950 and parallel to tachisme and Abstract Expressionism, it privileged the artist's expressive impulse over premeditated form: gesture, matter, and sign became the basis of communication, and painting was approached as a spontaneous, experimental act. In Italy the movement took a strongly material turn - Burri's burnt and sewn sacking, Fontana's punctured canvases, Vedova's violent black-and-white cycles - while sharing the era's distrust of geometric purity. Italian critics later tied it to a broader European 'art of another kind', and its emphasis on raw matter fed directly into the experiments of Arte Povera a decade later.

Lucio Fontana, Spatial Concept 'Waiting' (1960): a single cut through raw canvas at Tate Modern — the damaged picture plane becomes the work
Lucio Fontana, Spatial Concept 'Waiting' (1960): a single cut through raw canvas at Tate Modern — the damaged picture plane becomes the workCC0 (credit: Wmpearl; artwork by Lucio Fontana) · source
Lucio Fontana, Venice Was All in Gold (Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza): gestural grooves in gold closed by one central slash
Lucio Fontana, Venice Was All in Gold (Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza): gestural grooves in gold closed by one central slashCC BY-SA 4.0 (credit: Daniela M.; artwork by Lucio Fontana) · source
Alberto Burri, Grande Cretto di Gibellina (1984-89): cracked concrete over a ruined hillside — the sacchi's stitched matter at monumental scale
Alberto Burri, Grande Cretto di Gibellina (1984-89): cracked concrete over a ruined hillside — the sacchi's stitched matter at monumental scaleCC BY-SA 4.0 (credit: Davide Mauro; artwork by Alberto Burri) · source
Emilio Vedova, Senza titolo (1957-59): violent black-and-white brushwork with flashes of yellow and red
Emilio Vedova, Senza titolo (1957-59): violent black-and-white brushwork with flashes of yellow and redCC BY-SA 4.0 (credit: Sailko; artwork by Emilio Vedova) · source

Defining characteristics

  • Spontaneous gesture: drips, smears, and rapid brushwork left visible
  • Matter as subject: burlap, tar, ash, and burnt or stitched surfaces
  • Damaged picture planes: punctured, slashed, or torn canvases
  • Anti-geometric composition with open, unresolved fields
  • Emotional intensity over measured structure

Key figures

  • Lucio Fontana (1899-1968) — Spatialist whose punctured and slashed canvases redefined the picture plane
  • Alberto Burri (1915-1995) — Former physician whose sacchi made decayed matter the medium
  • Emilio Vedova (1919-2006) — Painter of aggressive, gestural black-and-white cycles

Example works

  • Concetto spaziale (Spatial Concept) series — Lucio Fontana (from 1949)
  • Sacchi (Sacks) series — Alberto Burri (from 1950)

Sources

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