Prints Gallery, Nonfigurative Art, Estéve, Cannes

In 1941, painter Charles Lapicque organized an exhibit, exposition-manifeste, under the heading “Twenty young painters in the French tradition.” Those artists shared a desire to express their own personal emotions in the face of the reality of their lives. During the 1940’s, Bazaine called his art “nonfigurative”, in an effort to move away from “abstract” art. This group was claiming its independence from American art and any form of abstraction. In 1948, in “Notes on Present-Day Painting”, Bazaine presented an analysis of what separated these nonfigurative artists from abstract painters. This is his description of nonfigurative art: “Painting the nature of things involves the presence of a living and moving duration on the canvas.” This definition goes counter to abstract art, which rejects all influences coming from the external world. This group of painters realized their works after carefully thinking them out and constructing them and then meticulously drawing them. The paintings have lost all figurative quality to become a true expression of mere space. Painted surfaces are sharply outlined in a style reminiscent of Cubism, Fauvism, and abstraction.

Art movements

NON FIGURATIVE ART
1942-1975

XXth century art movements

chronology

Art movements

NON FIGURATIVE ART 1942-1975

XXth century art movements

chronology

NON FIGURATIVE ART
1942-1975