Rafael Squirru, art critic and diplomat, discusses the term informalismo, citing the concepts of form in Scholasticism and in either idealist or Eastern philosophy. Squirru defines art as a sensory manifestation of the innermost states of conscience. He makes reference to the mystic intuition of Zen Buddhism, described as a communion with a superior order of being where the contradictions of the intellect dissolve. In his judgment, the problem of art is the communication of a spiritual sentiment through a technical medium––the form that emerges as the contour of the image. Squirru establishes the nexus of Informalism with Zen poetry: the use of humble, simple materials and the inner poetry that stems from the opacity of those elements. The critic goes on to delineate the distinction between Informalism and Tachisme.

The publication del Arte presented a bickering with the cover headline “El informalismo en la balanza: escriben J. Romero Brest, Enrique Azcoaga, Rafael Squirru.” [Informalism Tipped in the Scales: texts by J. Romero Brest, Enrique Azcoaga, Rafael Squirru]. The spread of the Informalist movementhad quite an impact on the artistic milieu in Argentina since the late 1950s with the work of Alberto Greco, Enrique Barilari, Kenneth Kemble, and Luis Alberto Wells,among others.Rafael F. Squirru (Buenos Aires, 1925) was the director of Museo de Arte Moderno (founded in Buenos Aires in 1956). Squirru is regarded as the key promoter behind the movement of informalismo as much for his criticism as his powerful institutional support. He held formal positions in the cultural office at Cancillería (the Argentinean Foreign Office), where he promoted the work of Alicia Penalba and Antonio Berni, among others, particularly in the Organization of American States in Washington, D.C. This article was published in the Buenos Aires daily Clarín, August 16, 1959, and afterwards in the catalogue for the exhibition Movimiento Informalista at the Museo Sívori, Buenos Aires, November 1959. It appears here without the checklist. Due to the widespread reach of this artistic trend in Argentina, this document is of considerable interest.