Tachism
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 A French style of abstract painting popular in the 1940s and 1950s. uncountable
"This was particularly notable in early stages of impressionism—the 1866 Manet Affair for example—and later postimpressionism when tachism, pointillism, and cloisonism—as well as the term referring to the Italian impressionists, macchaioli—begin to create paintings where the surface overshadows the content (the sacrosanct subject of the work)."
Synonyms
All synonymsExample
More examples"This was particularly notable in early stages of impressionism—the 1866 Manet Affair for example—and later postimpressionism when tachism, pointillism, and cloisonism—as well as the term referring to the Italian impressionists, macchaioli—begin to create paintings where the surface overshadows the content (the sacrosanct subject of the work)."
Etymology
From French tachisme, from tache (“stain”).
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.