ALEATORIC ART- Composition depending upon chance, random accident, or highly improvisational
execution, typically hoping to attain freedom from the past, from academic formulas, and the
limitations placed on imagination by the conscious mind. There is a tradition of Japanese and
Chinese artists employing aleatoric methods, many influenced by Taoism and Zen Buddhism. In
the west, precedents can be found among artists of ancient Greece, and later among artists of the
Italian Renaissance. Leonardo da Vinci (Italian, 1452-1519) recommended looking at blotches on
walls as a means of initiating artistic ideas. Aleatory was also employed by numerous twentieth
century avant-garde artists. Followers of the Dada and Surrealism produced numerous examples.
Jean Arp (French, 1887-1966) made collages by dropping small pieces of paper onto a larger piece,
then adhering them where they landed. André Masson (French, 1896-1987) and Joan Miró (Spanish,
1893-1983) allowed their pens to wander over sheets of paper in the belief that they would
discover in those doodles the ghosts of their repressed imaginations. Similarly, Tristan Tzara
(Rumanian, 1896-1963) created poetry by selecting sentences from newspapers entirely by chance.
ArtLex Dictionary
execution, typically hoping to attain freedom from the past, from academic formulas, and the
limitations placed on imagination by the conscious mind. There is a tradition of Japanese and
Chinese artists employing aleatoric methods, many influenced by Taoism and Zen Buddhism. In
the west, precedents can be found among artists of ancient Greece, and later among artists of the
Italian Renaissance. Leonardo da Vinci (Italian, 1452-1519) recommended looking at blotches on
walls as a means of initiating artistic ideas. Aleatory was also employed by numerous twentieth
century avant-garde artists. Followers of the Dada and Surrealism produced numerous examples.
Jean Arp (French, 1887-1966) made collages by dropping small pieces of paper onto a larger piece,
then adhering them where they landed. André Masson (French, 1896-1987) and Joan Miró (Spanish,
1893-1983) allowed their pens to wander over sheets of paper in the belief that they would
discover in those doodles the ghosts of their repressed imaginations. Similarly, Tristan Tzara
(Rumanian, 1896-1963) created poetry by selecting sentences from newspapers entirely by chance.
ArtLex Dictionary