This piece is by the celebrated artist Michel Tapie de Celeyran. Born into an aristocratic French family in Albi, France, Tapie was famously a second cousin to the legendary post-impressionist master Henri de Toulouse Lautrec. While he spent his early career producing stylized architectural landscape watercolors and town views he went on to become a highly influential figure in the 20th century postwar art world. He authored the groundbreaking 1952 book ‘Un Art Autre’, in it he coined the terms “Art Informel” and “Tachisme”, effectively defining the anti-geometric, spontaneous European style of abstract painting that served as a counterpart to American Abstract Expressionism. He is also known for organizing Jackson Pollack’s first solo exhibition in Paris and introducing the revolutionary Japanese Gutai Group to western audiences.
