The COBRA artists

A European Avant Garde art movement in 1948-1951 formed in Paris by:

Karel Appel, Constant, Corneille, Christian Dotremont, Asger Jorn, Joseph Noiret

with the aim of freedom in colour and form. Their work was based on spontaneity and experiment and drew inspiration from children’s drawings.  “The primary focus of the group consisted of semi-abstract paintings with brilliant color, violent brushwork, and distorted human figures inspired by primitive and folk art and similar to American action painting. Cobra was a milestone in the development of Tachisme and European abstract expressionism.”   Ref: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COBRA_%28avant-garde_movement%29

Karel Appel

Constant

Corneille

Christian Dotremont

Asger Jorn

Joseph Noiret

 

Tachism or Action Painting

Tachisme is defined by the Tate Gallery as abstract painting that is non geometric and consists of dribbles, scribbles and spontaneous brushwork.

Tache is French for stain or splash and was developed in Europe in response to dribble pictures and abstract expressionism of Jackson Pollock    ref:  http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/t/tachisme

The art mode developed in the 1950s  consisting of irregular dabs and splotches applied haphazardly and part of the art mode art informal. Practised by Hans Hartung, Gérard Schneider, Pierre Soulages, Chao Wu-chi (Zao Wu-ki), and Georges Mathieu.

The works are said to be more elegant than the American counterparts with graceful lines and muted colours.

But to me they are far less detailed, full or coloured.

Hans Hartung

Painted black lines on coloured backgrounds, influenced by Kandinsky

http://www.tate.org.uk/search/Hans%20Hartung    Painting T1937-33  On a slightly textured but generally monochrome background of a fawn colour are impressed several almost vertical marks in black grey and brown with more rounded blobs of cream and a larger patch a light green white on the left of the image leaving the canvas. Onto these lines are fine lines, like bent hairs arching across the centre of the image. There are two patches of a light green blue. It is almost impossible to ascertain any origin of the image and the title does not help. It is quite a mild image which reminds me of pieces of hair on a dull background and has a very benign effect on me with a hint of irritation because of the irregularity of the shapes and the presence of the fine lines.

 

 Gérard Schneider

Untitled 1953  (mixed media (drawing, watercolour on paper on foam board)

http://www.artnet.com/artists/g%C3%A9rard-ernest-schneider/untitled-a-QTqUEPnrvEhozs47-OrCXg2

A grey background is broken by a swish of blue which appears to be applied on a large brush. On top of this are four or five black brush marks applied in separate but swirling vertical and horizontal swirling marks. On the left of these are five shorter orange  overlaid on a grey marks and to the right in the lower corner similar marks in an acid but dull green with a similar mark towards the top of the black background on the right. In addition in the middle right part of the canvas is a lilac inverted v . The colours as they are laid on top of each other seem to be applied with ever decreasing brush size so the lilac is quite fine and delicate. The overall image is dark and unappealing, brings to mind a spider, but is not something I like mainly because of the heavy use of black and its gaudy contrast with the lime green and lilac.

Pierre Soulages

ref:  http://www.artnet.com/artists/pierre-soulages/composition-a-JTEXSola4rnwoJEvHL0K7w2

This is a swirling line across the canvas in blue consisting of relatively wide brush lines with black outline, and overlying a lighter horizontal  blue and another blue line which give the feel of a beach and sea in the background. I picked this image because  it is one that has most colour as many are black and are not at all to my liking.

 

Chao Wu-chi (Zao Wu-ki)

http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2011/20th-century-chinese-art-hk0354/lot.781.html

oil on canvas. A light orange in the upper left canvas blends into a deeper orange and lower down the canvas smudges  into a pale blue and white. Moving down the canvas this pale blue becomes dry and patchy spots of paint and fine lines of black and scratched areas, begin to play into this area of blue and white, which continuing to smudge into the light orange produces a grey green colour.Is this an explosion in the centre of a landscape or is it a pure abstraction? I cannot bring myself to like this image because it could easily have been made by chance.

 

Georges Mathieu

ref:  http://www.artnet.com/artists/georges-mathieu/jacques-cassart-a-jK3PDCJ0OmdR3lxjAD0U-w2

(French, 1921–2012)Title: Jacques Cassart Oil on Canvas

This image in red and white on black is appealing because of the forms of the image. The spikes and fine  lines take the heaviness from the black and produce a light dance of red and white like a delicate ballet dancer spinning against the light. Many of his images reflect these fine spiky lines like the thorns on a plant and most are painted in black red and white with the occasional blue.

 

 

 

 

 

Jackson Pollock

Notes taken from:  http://www.jackson-pollock.org/mural.jsp

Abstract expressionist 1912-1956,American, trained in New York, and influenced by Diego Rivera and Surrealism. From 1947 onward he started his drip and splash paintings. He allowed his emotions to be expressed on the canvas by dripping paint onto the canvas on the floor adding depth with knives and sticks.

His early paintings were influenced by Picasso and Joan Miro e.g Moon woman cuts the  circle  ref:http://www.jackson-pollock.org/moon-woman-cuts-the-circle.jsp

I cannot see why the dribbling of paint in a relatively random manner can be regarded as creative or artistic and have been informed in the past that Pollock’s success was related to the USA governments help in promoting a painting style which was so different to that of Russian art at the time so using it as a handle in the cold war.

“Why did the CIA support them? Because in the propaganda war with the Soviet Union, this new artistic movement could be held up as proof of the creativity, the intellectual freedom, and the cultural power of the US. Russian art, strapped into the communist ideological straitjacket, could not compete”

ref:  http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/modern-art-was-cia-weapon-1578808.html

 

Although some of his images are colourful I cannot believe they are either psychologically surrealist or in any way technically good and have little time for his images. I can see that at the time they may have started another pathway down which artists could venture away from any form of realism or manipulation and are fun to look at and presumably to paint.