École de Paris

The School of Paris was formed in that city circa 1910 via the movements instigators Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse. During the first decade of the 20th century, numerous painters and sculptors migrated to the French capital which had become the international mecca for the avant-garde. Paris appealed to those artists who sought to liberate themselves from their provincial or academic training experienced in there mother countries. Other artists who were associated with this movement included Constantin Brancusi, Marc Chagall, Max Ernst, Tsuguharu Fujita, Amedeo Modigliani, Moise Kisling, Jules Pascin and Chaim Soutine all of whom were later to gain and hold international recognition. Its use was then extended to encompass all non-figurative artists.

The name finally ended up referring to so many different artists that it lost all explicit meaning. Ultimately, due to such a disparity of practitioners it could be argued that the "School of Paris" referred more to a community of artists than to any precise style or movement. The name, still in use after World War II (althouigh the movement had waned) was then associated with movements such as 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, Bram van Velde and Georges Mathieu, among several others. However, from about 1950 its dominance had given way to the rise of the New York School.