The terms Haute Pâte and Matter Painting refer to a technique of painting that produces a relief-like surface texture through the use of impasto paint into which other materials such as sand, mud, cement, pebbles or shells are added. The stylistic tendency first became identifiable in Paris in the 1940s through the work of Jean Dubuffet (1901-1985) and Jean Fautrier (1898-1964) and achieved widespread popularity in the 1950s. This plastic approach to painting, which gives colour a material character, led to a completely new reception of art. The viewer is presented not only with a flat image, but with a haptically tangible surface that penetrates into space.
