Artwork Information

In this 1951 work entitled Interlocking, London-based abstract artist John Milnes-Smith uses a variety of painting, drawing and frottage techniques to create the illusion of randomly-placed samples of decorative wallpaper and fabric, unified by strong charcoal and pencil lines against a velvety black ground. In this year Milnes-Smith exhibited in ‘Metavisual, Tachiste, Abstract’ at the Redfern Gallery alongside other key figures of British abstract painting. Although commonly associated with French post-war art, in the British context ‘Tachisme’ (from the French word ‘stain’ or ‘blotch’), is described by one scholar as an “attitude and a process of fabrication rather than a particular 'look'.” Tachisme’s aesthetic effect was underpinned by a widely-held philosophical position, which rejected the ‘so-called rational systems of thought’ that enabled the events of WWII.