A axis : FORMALISM
When looking at the work, what type of formalisation first strikes the eye? Is it more abstract or more figurative, etc ? (on a scale from more "immaterial" to more "realist").

B axis : MATERIALITY
How does the materiality of what is shown come across?
(on a scale from more "immaterial" to more "real").

C axis : INVOLVEMENT BODY/ MIND
With what body:mind ratio does the artist enter into his work?
Classify from the most "intellectual" (e.g."Concept Art"...) to the most "physical" (e.g. "Body Art", ...).

D axis : COMMUNICATION
Does the artist have the deliberate intention to convey a message of any sort through his work?
(classified from the most "mystical" to the most "worldly").

A axis : FORMALISM
When looking at the work, what type of formalisation first strikes the eye? Is it more abstract or more figurative, etc ? (on a scale from more "immaterial" to more "realist").

:

A100 : not formalised + ephemeral works
works which play on light, sounds, smells, the ephemeral … Also including; any event saved solely in the form of a "record" (places wrapped by Christo, sales of "potted flowers" by J.P. Raynaud, "conference" by P.A. Gette, James Turell, Bill Viola,…).

A110 à A130 : works based on optical effects

: works created through lenses

:

A110 : real light
treated pictorially, sculpturally (Takis, ...), as environment, or like any other construction material of a work (C. Cruz Diez, Dan Flavin, Kosice, Keith Sonnier, James Turell, Michel Verjux, ...).

A120 : various mechanical creations
producing interactive light effects as in "Kinetic Light Art" or "Technological Art" (Nicolas Schöffer, Julio Le Parc, ...). including Jenny Holzer's "illuminated billboards"

A130 : works based on perception
using the arrangements of colours and/or shapes to trick the human eye into seeing them in a distorted way (photos and "installations" of Georges Rousse, Felice Varini, ...), or with the illusion of movement, as in "Kinetic Art" and "Op Art" (Y. Agam, Victor Vasarely, C. Cruz Diez, J.R. Soto, Bridget Riley, …).

A140 à A230 : Abstracts

A140 à A160 : Geometrical constructs:

A140 : Hard Edge, Minimalism, Neo-Minimalism
From "Concrete Art" to "Minimalist Art", all shapes or colors treated in a strictly orthogonal way, reducing sensitivity to a minimum (Joseph Albers, Mondrian, Gorin, Ad Reinhardt, "monochromes" by Rodtchenko, Frank Stella, Peter Halley, J. Armleder, R.M. Trockel, ... and in sculpture; Carl André, Sol Lewitt, Tony Cragg, ...).

A150 : Constructions not based on right angles
from "Post Cubism" with shapes broken down into strict planar surfaces, but not necessarily right angled. (Robert Delaunay, Maurice Estève, Jean Dewasne, Herbin, ...).

A160 : "All over", soft constructs
with a certain sensitivity in materials or colour, reintroduced into the "hard" construct, whether square-based or not (S. Poliakoff, Malevitch, J.P Riopelle, Maurice Estève, M.H. Veira Da Silva, Barnett Newman, James Bishop, ...).

A170 : mixed (between constructed and not constructed)
from "Field Painting" to "Abstract Expressionism"; taking over the pictorial space by pushing forward the limits of "all over" (Mark Rothko, Jackson Pollock, J.P Riopelle, Joan Michell, Judith Reigl, …).

A180 à A200 : not constructed / informal

A180 : material / splodges
from the most "Nuagist" to the most "Matter informalist" all types of play on the subtle properties of the painting medium and its coloured spaces (Zao Wou Ki, Sam Francis, Ben-Rath, …).

A190 : mixed (between "Matter informalist", "Tachism" and "Action Painting"
(Willem De Kooning, Clifford Still, Antoni Tapiès, Bengt Lindström, Riopelle, Olivier Debré, ...).

A200 : Action Painting
from the most "Lyrical" to something aproaching handwriting, gesture as the bringing out of what is inside, a thing in its own right, or an attempt to communicate (Hans Hartung, Franz Kline, Georges Mathieu, Jean Messagier, …).

A210 à A230 : with signs
The work as a whole remains abstract but includes (or consists entirely of):

A210 à A220 : signs forming writing:

A210 : writing without meaning
the sign as an abstract shape placed in the composition of the pictorial space (R.Motherwell, Giuseppe Capogrossi, Christian Dotremont, Cy Twombly, ...).

A220 : writing with meaning
the "Letterists" (Isidore Isou, Maurice Lemaitre, …) to the "Conceptuals" (Joseph Kossuth, Roman Opalka, …); writing ranging from the most formalist to pure communication (Ben, On Kawara, Barbara Kruger, ...).

A230 : where signs become symbols or icons
crossover from simple writing to meaningful symbols (Jean Fautrier, Alfred Manessier, Alechinsky, Ch. Dotremont, A.R. Penck, Wenda Gu, ...).

A240 à A260 : Allusive

A240 : inclusion of figures (or real objects ) in the abstract
More or less realistic figurative elements, more or less important but not going beyond details in a predominantly abstract work (Fernand Léger, Jan Voss, Antoni Tàpies, W. De Kooning, the "Combine Paintings" of R.Rauschenberg, ...).

A250 : a more inclusive, but lighter approach to the figurative
the figure is hinted at by the entangled shapes or from various abstract material elements (Mondrian, Kandinsky, Klee, the "footballers" by N. de Staël, ...), or by formal or coloured allusions ("Abtract Landscape Art"; Jean Bazaine, ...).

A260 : almost figurative
beginning with shapes, matter or gestures, fairly obvious representations of figures (Dubuffet, Fautrier, Bacon, ...)

A265 :

A270 à A300 : Figures

A270 : slightly deconstructed
Not as "Hard" as "Constructions not based on right angles " (A150), figures are broken down into a nearly "Post Cubist" style (Picasso, Villon, …) or reveal an "interior geometry" (Bazaine, Jacques Hérold, Veira da Silva, …), while still remaining on the whole recognizable.

A280 à A300 : Imaginary

A280 : The unconscious
generally rather abstract interior spaces. But rising out of the abstract, elements of the imaginary world can crystallize into pre-figurative shapes (Masson, Mirò, Arshile Gorky, …).

A290 : Visionary, mediumistic, fantasy
Dream monsters or creatures of the night are depicted with greater solidity and realism than in A280 (Matta, Max Ernst, Gustave Moreau, Paul Delvaux, Dado, Vito Tangiani, ... or the recent "Fictionists": Marko Mori, ...).

A300 : Closer to historical "Surrealism"
the wildest imaginings become "sur-realist" images (Salvator Dali, René Magritte, Alfred Courmes, …).

A310 : Other figurative works
Where the marginally figural meets the unconscious, visionary or surrealist imagination, all other unclassifiable representative works.

A320 à A380 : Representative works

A320 : Traditional representative works
from the most poetic vision to the most delicate evocation of what constitutes our life and environment, represented by the various forms of painting we know as the "French Tradition" (from Cézanne's Provence landscapes to Van Gogh's bunches of flowers, from Boudin's seascapes to Kisling's portraits...).

A330 : Work with quiet figures
figures are formally and materially presented in a quiet way (Edward Hopper, Balthus, Edouard Pignon, P. Klossowski, Sam Szafran, A. Garcia Lopez, ...).

A340 : Work with active figures
shapes are more active but not really expressionist (Alberto Giacometti, Jean Hélion , ...).

A350 à A380 : "Expressionist"
Outpouring of the turbulent or even violent inner world of an artist who, unlike with "Abstract Expressionism", does it with the many possible ways of depicting the Figure (from the original Expressionism to COBRA, from "Violent painting" to the "Néo-fauves", ...).

A350 : Use of Matter and/or colours
The expression frees itself above all in the mass or build-up of the coloured materials used (Corneille, Karel Appel, Bengt Lindström, Miguel Barceló, ...).

A360 : Mixed
The expression mixes techniques of Action painting with the use of matter (Emil Nolde, Asger Jorn, John Christoforou, O.Pelayo, Gérard Garouste, Georg Baselitz, Francesco Clemente, ...).

A370 : Action painting
The expression frees itself especially through the breadth and/or force of the painter's movements (Willem De Kooning, Antonio Saura, Vladimir Velickovic …).

A380 : Graffiti, logos
Expression via writing design: tags or graffiti when they become images (A.R.Penck, ...); logos (Gerôme Mesnager, Speedy Graphito, ...); hip-hop culture (Various collectives such as; Blade, Crash, ...).

A390 à A410 : Individualist Art (Art Singulier)

A390 : Primitivism
Individualist work which refers to ancestral archetypes as "primary" or "essential" cultural forms (E. Nolde, Jean Michel Basquiat, Ouattara, Robert Tatin, J. Dubuffet, ...).

A400 : Art brut
from art without cultural references (Dubuffet, Adolf Wölfli, …) to turning cast-off objects into art (Chomo, Maisonneuve, ...).

A405 : from "outsider" art to mediumistic and paranormal art
(Augustin Lesage, Joseph Crépin, …) even "asylum" art (Adolf Wölfli, Aloïse, ...)

A410 : Naïve Art, Folk Art, Infantile Art
expression of cultural identities: from a region (traditional arts ), from a certain time (for example the infantile naive; Chaïbia, ...), from a genre ... including in "savant art": cf. the pseudo-infantile art of Fernando Botero, Niki de Saint Phalle, ...

A430 à A460 : Neo Figurative

A420 : Near-figurative, linear structures - Flat colours
The simplest style between Naive Art, Folk Art, illustration and comic strip (Gaston Chaissac, V.Brauner, Yvon Taillandier, Eliane Larus, ...). In 2D but also in 3D (Sculptures by J. Dubuffet, Niki de St Phalle, ...).

A425 :

A427 :

A430 : "Free figures' and "Neo Comic strip"
A more "sophisticated" style than Naive Art and Art Brut, etc. combining art with popular imagery, advertising, comic strip, 80s rock cullture (Robert Combas, Hervé Di Rosa, Keith Harring, …) but also with the "Manga" style from the 90s or machine clip art from the 21st century.

A440 : "Narrative Figurative Art"
Introduction of the Time element into the depiction of reality. Discontinuities and juxtapositions of different time spaces creating a story within the picture itself (Jacques Monory, Errò, Bernard Rancillac, David Salle,…) or in photomontage (Raoul Hausmann, Richard Hamilton, ...).

A450 : Other Quotations
from "Pittura Colta" (C.M. Mariani, ...) to cultural references "Citationnisme" (Gérard Garouste, ...) or object references (Peter Klasen, Konrad Klapheck, ...).

A455 : More or less allegorical representations ("Trans Avant Garde", "Bad Painting", ...)
J.G. Dokoupil, Julian Schnabel, David Salle, Reiner Fetting, Kenny Scharf, Sandro Chia, Francesco Clemente, Enzo Cucchi, Mimo Paladino, ...

A460 : from "Pop Art" to "Neo-Pop"
from the early days of media images and products in art (Richard Lindner, E.Paolozzi, Ed Ruscha, Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, ...) up to their current ubiquity (Haïm Steinbach, Jeff Koons, Olivier Blanckart, Marc Dion, Takashi Murakami, Wang Du, ...).

A470 à A510 : Forms of "Realism"
Differents ways of observing the realities of the world, from a point of view of:

A470 : the solely Formal
between the "Neue sachlichkeit", "American scene" or "Nouvelle figuration", Reality as perceived by an artist whose subjectivity remains in abeyance (Christian Schad, Gérard Schlosser, Vincent Corpet, Gilles Aillaud, ...).

A480 : "Hyperrealism"
Beyond Realism, fantastic representation of certain parts of Reality. In France (from J.O. Hucleux to Gilles Barbier, ...) but especially in the USA, in painting (Richard Estes, Richard Mac Lean) and in sculpture (John de Andrea, Duane Hanson, ..., and more recently; Ron Mueck, William Beckman, ...).

A490 : "Trompe l'oeil"
A sort of US Hyperrealism but which finds its place more in European interior design and often with a degree of "theatricality" (Henri Cadiou, Claud Yvel, ...) or as a mural

A500 : "Brechtian"
"Distanciation" of figures with explicit socio-political convictions, with the aim of changing social or political realities (André Fougeron, Groupe DDP, Renato Guttuso, …), or at least "critical" of such realities (Peter Saul, Cindy Sherman, Equipo Cronica, B.Rancillac, ...).

A510 : Photos and allied themes
as a record of reality, or a way of working on it (from H.C. Bresson to R. Mapplethorpe ou Bernd et Hilla Becher, ...). Also as materials belonging to aesthetical work (Anette Messager, Louis Jammes, Philippe Cazal, Pierre et Gilles, ...), or as part of a broader formal work (paintings and photos by Peter Klasen; drawings and photos by Jean Le Gac, ...).

A515 :

A517 :

A520 : "Mixed media"
Combinations of different formalisms. More generally found among young creators at the end of the 20th/beginning 21st centuries, often hand in hand with "Installations" (Jason Rhodes, Rirkrit Tiravanija, ...).

A530 : Miscellaneous
types of work which do not fit into the preceding categories

A axis : FORMALISM
When looking at the work, what type of formalisation first strikes the eye? Is it more abstract or more figurative, etc ? (on a scale from more "immaterial" to more "realist").

B axis : MATERIALITY
How does the materiality of what is shown come across?
(on a scale from more "immaterial" to more "real").

C axis : INVOLVEMENT BODY/ MIND
With what body:mind ratio does the artist enter into his work?
Classify from the most "intellectual" (e.g."Concept Art"...) to the most "physical" (e.g. "Body Art", ...).

D axis : COMMUNICATION
Does the artist have the deliberate intention to convey a message of any sort through his work?
(classified from the most "mystical" to the most "worldly").