Tachisme is a French style of abstract painting popular in the 1940s and 1950s. The term is said to have been first used with regard to the movement in 1951. It is often considered to be the European response and equivalent to abstract expressionism, although there are stylistic differences. It was part of a larger postwar movement known as Art Informel, which abandoned geometric abstraction in favour of a more intuitive form of expression, similar to action painting. Another name for Tachism is Abstraction lyrique. COBRA is also related to Tachisme, as is Japan's Gutai group.