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| The Scream : Edvard Munch |
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| Dance of Life : Munch |
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| Death Pursuing a Flock of People: James Ensor |
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| James Ensor : Cannibals? |
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Definitions and characterizations of Expressionism
From WebMuseum,Paris: Expressionism
In the north of Europe, the Fauves' celebration of color was pushed to new emotional and psychological depths. Expressionism,
as it was generally known, developed almost simultaneously in different countries from about 1905. Characterized by heightened,
symbolic colors and exaggerated imagery, it was German Expressionism in particular that tended to dwell on the darker, sinister
aspects of the human psyche.
The term ``Expressionism'' can be used to describe various art forms but, in its broadest sense, it is used to describe any
art that raises subjective feelings above objective observations. The paintings aim to reflect the artists's state of mind
rather than the reality of the external world. The German Expressionist movement began in 1905 with artists such as Kirchner
and Nolde, who favored the Fauvist style of bright colors but also added stronger linear effects and harsher outlines.
Although Expressionism developed a distinctly German character, the Frenchman, Georges Rouault (1871-1958), links the decorative
effects of Fauvism in France with the symbolic color of German Expressionism. Rouault trained with Matisse at Moreau's academy
and exhibited with the Fauves, but his palette of colors and profound subject matter place him as an early, if isolated Expressionist.
His work has been described as ``Fauvism with dark glasses''.
Rouault was a deeply religious man and some consider him the greatest religious artist of the 20th century. He began his career
apprenticed to a stained-glass worker, and his love of harsh, binding outlines containing a radiance of color gives poignancy
to his paintings of whores and fools. He himself does not judge them, though the terrible compassion with which he shows his
wretched figures makes a powerful impression: Prostitute at Her Mirror (1906; 70 x 60 cm (27 1/2 x 23 1/2 in)) is a savage
indictment of human cruelty. She is a travesty of feminity, although poverty drives her still to prink miserably before her
mirror in the hope of work. Yet the picture does not depress, but holds out hope of redemption. Strangely enough, this work
is for Rouault-- if not exactly a religious picture-- at least a profoundly moral one. She is a sad female version of his
tortured Christs, a figure mocked and scorned, held in disrepute.
The bridge to the future
Die Brücke (The Bridge) was the first of two Expressionist movements that emerged in Germany in the early decades of the 20th
century. In 1905 a group of German Expressionist artists came together in Dresden and took that name chosen by Schmidt-Rottluff
to indicate their faith in the art of the future, towards which their work would serve as a bridge. In practice they were
not a cohesive group, and their art became an angst-ridden type of Expressionism. The achievement that had the most lasting
value was their revival of graphic arts, in particular, the woodcut using bold and simplified forms.
The artists of Die Brücke drew inspiration from van Gogh, Gauguin and primitive art. Munch was also a strong influence, having
exhibited his art in Berlin from 1892. Ernst Ludwig Kirchner (1880-1938), the leading spirit of Die Brücke, wanted German
art to be a bridge to the future. He insisted that the group, which included Erich Heckel (1883-1970) and Karl Schmidt-Rottluf
(1884-1976), ``express inner convictions... with sincerity and spontaneity''.
Even at their wildest, the Fauves had retained a sense of harmony and design, but Die Brücke abandoned such restraint. They
used images of the modern city to convey a hostile, alienating world, with distorted figures and colors. Kirchner does just
this in Berlin Street Scene (1913; 121 x 95 cm (47 1/2 x 37 1/2 in)), where the shrill colors and jagged hysteria of his own
vision flash forth uneasily. There is a powerful sense of violence, contained with difficulty, in much of their art. Emil
Nolde (1867-1956), briefly associated with Die Brücke, was a more profound Expressionist who worked in isolation for much
of his career. His interest in primitive art and sensual color led him to paint some remarkable pictures with dynamic energy,
simple rhythms, and visual tension. He could even illuminate the marshes of his native Germany with dramatic clashes of stunning
color. Yet Early Evening (1916; 74 x 101 cm (29 x 39 1/2 in)) is not mere drama: light glimmers over the distance with an
exhilarating sense of space.
Die Brücke collapsed as the inner convictions of each artist began to differ, but arguably the greatest German artist of the
time was Max Beckmann (1884-1950). Working independently, he constructed his own bridge, to link the objective truthfulness
of great artists of the past with his own subjective emotions. Like some other Expressionists, he served in World War I and
suffered unbearable depression and hallucinations as a result. His work reflects his stress through its sheer intensity: cruel,
brutal images are held still by solid colors and flat, heavy shapes to give an almost timeless quality. Such an unshakeable
certainty of vision meant that he was hated by the Nazis, and he ended his days in the United States, a lonely force for good.
He is perhaps just discernible as a descendant of Dürer in his love of self-portraits and blend of the clumsy and suave with
which he imagines himself: in Self-Portrait (1944; 95 x 60 cm (37 1/2 x 23 1/2 in)), he looks out, not at himself, but at
us, with a prophetic urgency.
Austrian Expressionism: Egon Schiele
© 14 Oct 2002, Nicolas Pioch
And Expressionism is defined at ArtMovements.co.uk/ Expressionism
EXPRESSIONISM
KEY DATES: 1905-1925
A term used to denote the use of distortion and exaggeration for emotional effect, which first surfaced in the art literature
of the early twentieth century. When applied in a stylistic sense, with reference in particular to the use of intense colour,
agitated brushstrokes, and disjointed space. Rather than a single style, it was a climate that affected not only the fine
arts but also dance, cinema, literature and the theatre.
Expressionism is an artistic style in which the artist attempts to depict not objective reality but rather the subjective
emotions and responses that objects and events arouse in him. He accomplishes his aim through distortion, exaggeration, primitivism,
and fantasy and through the vivid, jarring, violent, or dynamic application of formal elements. In a broader sense Expressionism
is one of the main currents of art in the later 19th and the 20th centuries, and its qualities of highly subjective, personal,
spontaneous self-expression are typical of a wide range of modern artists and art movements.
Unlike Impressionism, its goals were not to reproduce the impression suggested by the surrounding world, but to strongly impose
the artist's own sensibility to the world's representation. The expressionist artist substitutes to the visual object reality
his own image of this object, which he feels as an accurate representation of its real meaning. The search of harmony and
forms is not as important as trying to achieve the highest expression intensity, both from the aesthetic point of view and
according to idea and human critics.
Expressionism assessed itself mostly in Germany, in 1910. As an international movement, expressionism has also been thought
of as inheriting from certain medieval artforms and, more directly, Cézanne, Gauguin, Van Gogh and the fauvism movement.
The most well known German expressionists are Max Beckmann, Otto Dix, Lionel Feininger, George Grosz, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner,
August Macke, Emil Nolde, Max Pechstein; the Austrian Oskar Kokoschka, the Czech Alfred Kubin and the Norvegian Edvard Munch
are also related to this movement. During his stay in Germany, the Russian Kandinsky was also an expressionism addict.
And given a shorter definition at ArtLex/ Expressionism
Expressionism - (with a capital E — the more specific sense) An art movement dominant in Germany from 1905-1925, especially
Die Brücke and Der Blaue Reiter, which are usually referred to as German Expressionism, anticipated by Francisco de Goya y
Lucientes (Spanish, 1746-1828), Vincent van Gogh (Dutch, 1853-1890), Paul Gauguin (French, 1848-1903) and others.
and from Mark Harden's Artchive/ Expressionism
Expressionism ( - From The Bulfinch Guide to Art History )
A term first used at the 1911 Fauvist and Cubist exhibition in Berlin. It describes art which distorts reality through exaggeration,
vigorous and visible brushwork and strong colour, in order to express an artist's ideas or emotions. Although these tendencies
are apparent in art before the 20th century, particularly that of Northern Europe (Grünewald), the term is primarily associated
with the German groups, Die Brücke and Der Blaue Reiter, with post First World War German art and to a lesser extent with
the Fauves in France. There were also a number of individuals, working at the same period, who are commonly linked to the
movement, including Kokoschka, Rouault, Soutine and Schiele. These artists opposed the naturalism of the Impressionists but
were inspired by van Gogh, Gauguin, Toulouse-Lautrec, Munch, Ensor and others. They were among the first to appreciate non-European
and primitive art forms and also looked to the folk art of their own countries in the belief that spontaneity of feeling was
greatest where intellect and training were least. This exploration led to a strong spiritual element in the work of many Expressionists
such as Kandinsky, Rouault and Nolde. It also encouraged an interest in graphic art, particularly woodcuts (Barlach). Despite
their links with the past, Expressionists were at the forefront of modernist developments in painting: artists like Marc and
Feininger incorporated Cubist elements into their work and Kandinsky produced early examples of abstraction. But their sympathies,
as reflected in their subject matter, were anti-modernist: the industrial city was a place of danger and immorality, the First
World War was a personal and international disaster, politics, especially in postwar Germany were corrupt. For some, this
state of affairs led to escapism into landscape or a discovery of the self, others experienced an alienation akin to that
expressed by Dada (Grosz) and later by the Abstract Expressionists. Expressionism has continued to be influential in later
20th century art (Baselitz).
Expressionism was not purely associated with two-dimensional art. Sculptors such as Barlach, Lehmbruck and Kollwitz were motivated
by aims similar to those of Expressionist painters. In architecture the language of internationalism was strained and distorted
by Mendelsohn, Steiner and in some works by Behrens and Mies van der Rohe. Bertolt Brecht, Sean O'Casey and Franz Kafka also
explored comparable ideas in literature. In all its forms the movement stood out against fascism and this, together with its
so called 'degenerate' qualities (it was anti-Aryan and anti-naturalism) led to the persecution of many Expressionist artists
under the Nazi regime.
also see:
EyeconArt/Expressioism
German Expressioism
ARTCYCLOPEDIA
Art Movements and Art Periods . A Web Directory/Expresssionism
art general:
Virtual Museum Of Art
ARTCYCLOPEDIA
Robin Urton Eyecon Art
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