Jean Fautrier — Gentle Woman

Jean Fautrier (1898–1964), a French painter, was one of the most prominent and representative lyrical abstractionists in Paris during the 1950s, as well as a pioneer in European modernism's exploration of materiality. Initially inclined toward realism, from 1942 onward, in his Hostages series, he applied a thick layer of plaster-like substance to emphasize the texture of painting, the energy of matter, and its tactile and visual impact. Matter became the body of the painting, directly manifesting the artist's sensibility and will to exist, making him a founder of Art Informel and inaugurating a new era in painting.

Gentle Woman is not at all sensual; one sees only a mass of heavy, rough material. It is another manifestation following the famous Hostages series from the war period, and one of the nude works liberated from the suffering and tragedy of war. On this formless material, the painter's few strokes suggest a woman's body, emphasizing materiality along with its tactile and perceptual qualities.