anti-formalist

adjective

an·​ti-for·​mal·​ist ˌan-tē-ˈfȯr-mə-list 

ˌan-tī-

variants or antiformalist

: opposed to formalism

This would make nonsense of those anti-formalist claims that denigrate the study of form by seeking to empty form out, excluding all worldly relations from it.

—William V. Spansos et al.

anti-formalism noun

or antiformalism

ˌan-tē-ˈfȯr-mə-ˌli-zəm 

ˌan-tī-

It was not long ago that Surrealism was widely dismissed. Modernists had little use for the movement's anti-formalism, for its concerns with things like disorder, excess and exotica.

—Michael Kimmelman

Word History

First Known Use

1831, in the meaning defined above