School of Paris

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School of Paris (École de Paris) refers to two distinct groups of artists — a group of medieval manuscript illuminators, and a group of non-French artists working in Paris before World War I. Additionally, it refers to a similar group of artists living in Paris between the two world wars.

[edit] Medieval illuminators

The School of Paris manuscript illuminators in the Middle Ages flourished under the patronage of St. Louis, and continued the work of Master Honoré, Jehan Pucelle and the Limburg Brothers.

[edit] Modern School of Paris

The School of Paris describes, not an art movement or a learning institution, but instead is more indicative of the importance of Paris as a center of Western art in the early decades of the 20th century.

The group of non-French artists in Paris before World War I, created in the styles of Post-Impressionism, Cubism, Fauvism, and includes artists like Pablo Picasso, Marc Chagall, Amedeo Modigliani, Piet Mondrian and French artists like Pierre Bonnard and Henri Matisse.

Many of these same artists, plus Jean Arp, Robert Delaunay, Sonia Delaunay, Joan Miró, Constantin Brancusi, Raoul Dufy, René Iché, Tsuguharu Foujita and Chaim Soutine, worked in Paris between World War I and World War II, in various styles including Surrealism and Dada.

After the Second World War the term School of Paris often referred to Tachisme, the European equivalent of American Abstract expressionism. Important proponents being Jean Dubuffet, Pierre Soulages, Nicholas de Stael, Hans Hartung, Serge Poliakoff, and Georges Mathieu, among several others.

[edit] References

West, Shearer (1996). The Bullfinch Guide to Art. UK: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc. ISBN 0-8212-2137-X.