Informel is an art movement characterized by non-geometrical abstraction and expressive gestures. Emerging in the mid-1950s, Informel is generally considered the first radical artistic experiment in postwar Korea, not only because it abandoned representational art in favor of complete abstraction, but also because it initiated a collective rebellion against the government-sponsored National Art Exhibition (gukjeon) system. As the French term suggests, Informel is closely related to its European counterpart and American Abstract Expressionism, which were popular in the 1940s and 1950s.