An Informel Invitation
Welcome to Creativity from Chaos
Going into 2025 with no plan at all sounds like a plan: Welcome to the Informel.
Embrace the Chaos: An Invitation to Explore the Informel Movement
Imagine throwing spaghetti against a wall—an act so simple, so spontaneous, yet oddly satisfying. The noodles fly through the air, twisting and landing wherever they please, some sticking, some falling, creating an unplanned no-longer-edible masterpiece. This playful image might seem far from the world of high art, but it’s surprisingly close to what the Informel Movement was all about: Embracing randomness, loving the unexpected and finding beauty in the formless.
The Informel Movement was born in the aftermath of World War II as Europe sought to heal its wounds and rebuild its identity. Artists like Jean Dubuffet, Hans Hartung, Pierre Soulages, Georges Mathieu and Wols (Alfred Otto Wolfgang Schulze) rejected the rigidity of pre-war art styles and the constraints of traditional form. Influenced by existentialist thinkers like Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus, they created works that captured raw emotion, chaos and the absurdity of existence.
But why should we care about this seemingly abstract and distant art movement? We can see its spirit is still alive and relevant in how we currently live, create, play and connect with the world around us.
The Joy of Splatter: The Freedom of Spontaneity
Think of those moments when you’ve tossed paint onto a canvas during a late-night art session or a colorful DIY project in your home or apartment. The joy is in the mess, the freedom, the release of control. That’s the heart of Informel art—it’s not about the outcome but about the act of creating. Like the thrill of splattering paint, Informel art celebrates the process, the emotions poured out in each gesture, each drip, each smear.
Informel artists worked intuitively, often without a plan, letting their emotions guide their hands. They showed us art doesn’t have to make sense to be meaningful. It’s about expression, not explanation. It’s the modern art the Academics called their nightmare.
Beautiful Glitches: Chaos as Art
If you’ve ever seen a glitch in a video game or a distorted digital image, you know how mesmerizing chaos can be. Those unexpected moments of beauty—unplanned and unpolished—feel almost magical. Informel art is much the same, a kind of analog glitch where the imperfections and randomness become the point.
In today’s world, where we celebrate digital glitch art and embrace imperfection as authenticity, Informel artists seem more prescient than ever. They remind us to find wonder in the accidental, the unscripted, the raw.
Fleeting Moments: The Art of the Ephemeral
Imagine your Instagram Stories or Snapchat posts—a snapshot of a moment, raw and unfiltered, disappearing in 24 hours. The Informel movement has echoes of this ethos: The art wasn’t always about permanence or grandeur but about capturing something immediate and real. It was an art of the present moment, much like the ephemeral creativity we see on social media today.
These fleeting creations teach us to value the process and the now. Informel art, like a story shared with friends, is a reminder beauty doesn’t have to last forever to matter.
Nature’s Patterns: The Organic Chaos
Take a walk in the woods and look at the way leaves scatter across the forest floor, how mud splashes on a trail, or how water ripples unpredictably in a stream. Informel art mirrors this natural, unplanned beauty—organic, textured, alive. The movement’s focus on spontaneity and texture connects deeply with our eco-conscious generations, finding inspiration in the chaos and resilience of nature.
Informel artists sought to create art as it felt alive, free from the strictures of logic and control. Their work reminds us to embrace imperfection, to find harmony in the seemingly random.
Inviting Creativity
The Informel movement is an open invitation to throw our own ‘pasta’ at the wall—to create without fear, without plans and without rules. Its philosophy aligns with the spirit of our times, encouraging us to embrace uncertainty, celebrate chaos and find meaning in the act of creation itself.
So for 2025, let’s dive in! Discovering the stories behind these bold artists, their wild experiments and their refusal to be confined by tradition is a great way to become more inspired in our own random creative ways. In their art, we may just see a reflection of our own creative journey—messy, unpredictable and utterly beautiful in each our own way.
Stay tuned for posts on each of the key players in this pivotal movement to guide us into more ways of Living Art Meaningfully in 2025.
References—
Movements in Modern Art: Abstract Expressionism and Informel by Mary Ann Caws
Outstanding input. I love the “7 natural pattens in nature.” Spiral, branching, radial, 120 degree angle, meander, whorl, chaos. These repeated over and over again in nature. Love these seven patterns as design motifs. They are found in the art going back to cave paintings and petroglyphs..Thanks for sharing.
This is a great, down-to-earth take on the Informel Movement! You make the concept relatable by connecting it to everyday moments, like tossing spaghetti (I'm sure my grandparents are cringing in the afterlife) or posting unfiltered Instagram stories. The comparison to nature’s chaos adds a nice touch, showing how beauty can come from randomness.
The message of embracing imperfection and focusing on the process rather than the outcome is inspiring and refreshing. It’s a fun way to invite people to be creative without overthinking, just like the Informel artists did.