The war and its horrors are passed by there

Contrary to appearances, the world of art has a few points in common with that of the sport. In addition to stardom and financial issues associated with some athletes or artists, these two worlds are also an acute chauvinism. Thus, in France, when talking to a gesture that made Jackson Pollock's one of the most celebrated artists of the post-war period in the United States, the "dripping" (this way of throwing the color on the canvas), fans cite immediately the name of the surrealist André Masson, who have practised the "dripping" before, without the name. The paternity of Masson would be all the more evident that, follower of "leave Freehand drawing hand" took refuge in New York between 1941 and 1945, like many Surrealists.

At Basel, until May 12, 27 artists are exposed to the Fondation Beyeler to illustrate the Action Painting, this sign language and abstract painting that emerged in Europe and the United States after the war. The curator of the exhibition, Ulf Kuster, warns immediately: "There is no nationalist concerns in the exhibition." Not patronage, therefore. If Masson is missing from the comments, there are other French...

Puzzle

Fondation Beyeler means replay the history of art abstract about the second war, ignoring the preconceived ideas. The history of the avant-garde is a huge puzzle which extends from Europe to the United States and one artist to another, by systems of emulation and influences subtended by the changes in society.

The exhibition begins with a remarkable canvas of 1926 Jean Fautrier (1898-1964), French artist to the singular personality, today a little forgotten. In 1926, he painted all in black and grey landscape "Les Glaciers", which would take the abstraction if he was on the right side below, of tiny naïve characters engraved in the thickness of the paint. The canvas is crossed from hand in hand with a grand gesture of the brush, more clear, which marks the melting of snow. A gestural painting which justifies its place in the exhibition. For the same reason, Hans Hartung (1904-1989) is present in Basel. This German, engaged in the Foreign Legion during the second war was naturalized French. Features, patches, and colors rather cleverly arranged on a canvas of small format. The abstract gesture is also very early.

So forward gently towards American and Pollock Hall. Jackson Pollock (1912-1956) never went to Europe. But Europe came to him. First, with exhibitions of artists keys as Picasso at MoMa pre-war, but still the exile of a part of the avant-garde in New York during the war. According to Ulf Kuster, enthusiasm for large formats of Pollock and other Americans would origin encounter with the surrealist Roberto Matta, himself "converted" to have assisted in the creation of "Guernica" by Picasso (1).

In 1947, Jackson Pollock to buckles compositions which are intended to be free and without reference to any reality: the famous "dripping". The war and its horrors are passed by there. The release, some artists are unwilling to represent reality and reject the old rules. It is from there that was born the Action Painting, a sort of dance artist armed with his painting and his brushes. In Pollock, the magic lies in the balance of the compositions. But chance isn't there for very little. Course, the films show the artist looking color and the having without hesitation on the canvas, but the work upstream, thinking above is long. Relations of forms and colors between them, the use of different brushes give this unspeakable abstract harmony. The spontaneity was planned. The Action Painting is an art of the spirit which the master is Pollock.