Tachisme The two first lots owe them asymmetrical shapes to the ?Tachiste? movement, a style of abstract painting popular in the late 1940s and early 1950s. It is characterized by the use of irregular blotches of color (from the French word "tâche", meaning "spot"), and pursued goals similar to those of abstract expressionism, favoring spontaneity over formal rigor. In 1953 the French painter and poet Jean Atlan described the philosophy behind Tachisme in this way: "there is a common source for the painter and the dancer, this common source is a certain manner of living rhythms... At the beginning there is a rhythm which tends to unfold itself: it is the perception of this rhythm that is fundamental and it is on its development that the vital quality of the work depends." Tachisme was primarily a French move-ment and possesses a characteristic elegance and lyricism.