Arte Informale is a term coined in 1950 by the French critic Michel Tapié to refer to the art movement that began during the mid-1940s in post-World War II Europe. This movement also paralleled the Abstract Expressionism movement that was taking place at the same time in the United States, and had ties to the Arte Povera movement. Sometimes referred to as Tachism, Art Autre or Lyrical Abstraction, it was a type of abstraction in which form became less important than that of the expressive impulses of the artist, and was opposed to the rationalism of traditional abstraction. The qualities of informal art explore the possibilities of gesture, materials (often non traditional), and signage as the basis of communication. Oftentimes art characterized as informal is executed spontaneously and the approach to painting and sculpture are generally gestural, performative, expressionistic and experimental. Certain artists such as Lucio Fontana, Alberto Burri and Emilio Vedova were crucial figures of this movement.
Arte Informale is based on the convention of painting while expanding the concept to include time-based themes and viewer dependent trials. Alberto Burri, Emilio Vedova, and Lucio Fontana are the three main Italian artists to question the limits of painting and sculpture by reassigning the expressive qualities. They tried to create new channels of communication to forge new styles that would reach beyond their predecessors. However, they were unable to break away from the history of Italian art.
Arte Informale became an internationally accepted movement that reached the New York School, the Japanese Gutai Group, and the South American Abstractionists. However, the primary adherents were French and Italian avant-garde artists. It was a movement wherein artists created a dialogue between material, subject, and the world. It was a rejection of the constrained thoughts of previous modern painters.
Alberto Burri
Alberto Burri worked in Rome and was a role model for younger artists. By observing the connection between culture and nature he saw that material had an existence of its own and that he as the artist was required to use the energy from the organic materials. Burri introduced energy, life, death, and destruction into his work through the use of natural and industrial materials. Burri was a solitary, quiet and aloof artist. His style emphasised the ethical weight and burden of living in a post-world war two era. As a modernist Burri tried to give shape and rationality to the disorder of post-atomic contemporary culture by extending and exploring the limits of painting.
In the 1950s in Rome the Gruppo Origine was founded which, brought artist like Ettore Colla and Burri together. They shared in common their rejection of abstract painters as too far detached from reality and realist painters as too disengaged from the relationship between life and art. However, Burri showed this through his work Sacchi by using thrown away burlap sacks and the method of suture that would reference human aspects and the practice of contemporary living. He used the terms 'form' and 'space' to attain synchronization and stability in his work. Burri addressed the issues of energy, life, death, and destruction into his work through the use of natural and industrial materials.
Sacchi
The Sacchi was first created in 1950 but hundreds were made. Burri created these Sacchi by tearing and scoring pieces of burlap, adding stitching, then placing them on a canvas. Sometimes they were singed or accompanied by paint, red plastic or resin. On one hand the Sacchi acted as a concept of incorporating aspects of everyday life into art. On the other hand, it was thought to be associated with the body. Burri had been trained as a doctor and worked as a surgeon in the war until he was captured and sent to an American POW camp in Texas, which is where he first started using burlap sacs. His past was the basis for a general consensus between critics was that it was a suggestion to the troubled status of Burri after the war. Lorenza Trucchi suggested that the burlap acted as a skin that Burri could project his traumatized recollections on. Francesco Arcangeli implied that Burri used violence to recognize and remind the viewers of the war. However, Maurizio Calvesi brought up the meaning of the material itself. At the time when Arte Informale was starting up in Italy the war had ended, the economy was fluctuating and the U.S Marshall Plan had been put into place. Calves thought that Burri's use of the burlap sac was due to the commonality of the leftover food bags and that he was commemorating poverty.