Fondation Beyeler, Basel


An iconic method in modern art, abstract gestural painting is essentially alluring in its movement, spontaneity and sense of freedom. Jackson Pollock would dance around a canvas that had been laid on the floor, leading his movements by the drips of paint and the drips of paint by his movements. Such a dynamic exchange between artist and artwork remains today a mythical phase in modernist creation.

Action Painting presents 100 works by twenty-seven artists from Europe, North and South America and Asia, unifying through a larger perspective what was variably named "L'art informal" in Europe and "Abstract Expressionism" in America. Artists such as Willem de Kooning, Clyfford Still, Sam Francis, Roberto Matta, Kazuo Shiraga and Pierre Soulages are on display among others that are less well known, as well as the succeeding generation of artists who have reinterpreted this art form, such as Cy Twombly and Eve Hesse.

The artist's state of mind, his uncalculated actions, and the visuals that result place the creative process in the moment and in the flux of life - the very poignancy of this unique manner of painting.


January 27 through May 12, 2008
Baselstrasse 77
CH-4125 Riehen/Basel
T. +41 (0)61 645 97 00