School of Paris

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.

Medieval illuminators

The School of Paris also refers to the many manuscript illuminators, whose identities are mostly unknown, who made Paris an internationally important centre of illumination throughout the Romanesque and Gothic periods of the Middle Ages, and for some time into the Rennaissance. The most famous of these artists were Jean Pucelle and Jean Fouquet. The Limbourg brothers, originally from the Netherlands, also spent time in Paris, as well as Burgundy and Bourges, but their style is not typical of the Paris of the day. Many of the painters in Parisian workshops were women.

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 and those artists are also related to Cobra. Important proponents being Jean Dubuffet, Pierre Soulages, Nicholas de Stael, Hans Hartung, Serge Poliakoff, and Georges Mathieu, among several others.

See also

• Tachisme
• Cobra

External links

• Template:Fr Nadine Nieszawer's website, dedicated to the School of Paris 1905-1939

References

• West, Shearer (1996). The Bullfinch Guide to Art. UK: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc. ISBN 0-8212-2137-X.
• Nieszawer, Nadine (2000). Peintres Juifs à Paris 1905-1939. france: Denoel. ISBN 2-207-251-42-X.