- Choose your Country
- Choose your Country
Expressionism
Expressionism was a cultural movement originating in Germany at the start of the 20th-century as a reaction to positivism and other artistic movements such as naturalism and impressionism. It sought to express the meaning of “being alive” and emotional experience rather than physical reality. It is the tendency of an artist to distort reality for an emotional effect, it is a subjective art form.
Expressionism is exhibited in many art forms, including: painting, literature, theatre, film, architecture and music. The term often implies emotional angst. In a general sense, painters such as Matthias Grunewald and El Greco can be called expressionist, though in practice, the term is applied mainly to 20th century works.
Although it is used as a term of reference, there has never been a distinct movement that called itself “expressionism”, apart from the use of the term by Herwarth Walden in his polemic magazine Der Sturm in 1912. The term is usually linked to paintings and graphic work in Germany at the turn of the century which challenged the academic traditions, particularly through the Die Brucke and Der Blaue Reiter groups. Philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche played a key role in originating modern expressionism by clarifying and serving as a conduit for previously neglected currents in ancient art.
In The Birth of Tragedy Nietzsche presented his theory of the ancient dualism between two types of aesthetic experience, namely the Apollonian and the Dionysian, a dualism between the plastic “art of sculpture”, of lyrical dream-inspiration, identity (the principium individuationis), order, regularity, and calm repose, and, on the other hand, the non-plastic “art of music”, of intoxication, forgetfulness, chaos, and the ecstatic dissolution of identity in the collective. The analogy with the world of the Greek gods typifies the relationship between these extremes: two godsons, incompatible and yet inseparable. According to Nietzsche, both elements are present in any work of art. The basic characteristics of expressionism are Dionysian: bold colours, distorted forms-in-dissolution, two-dimensional, without perspective.
More generally the term refers to art that expresses intense emotion. It is arguable that all artists are expressive but there is a long line of art production in which heavy emphasis is placed on communication through emotion. Such art often occurs during time of social upheaval, and through the tradition of graphic art there is a powerful and moving record of chaos in Europe from the 15th century on the Protestant Reformation, Peasants’ War, Eight Years’ War, Spanish Occupation of the Netherlands, the rape, pillage and disaster associated with countless periods of chaos and oppression are presented in the documents of the printmaker. Often the work is unimpressive aesthetically, but almost without exception has the capacity to move the viewer to strong emotions with the drama and often horror of the scenes depicted.
The term was also coined by Czech art historian Antonin Matejcek in 1910 as the opposite of impressionism: “An Expressionist wishes, above all, to express himself….(An Expressionist rejects) immediate perception and builds on more complex psychic structures…. Impressions and mental images that pass through mental peoples soul as through a filter which rids them of all substantial accretions to produce their clear essence […and] are assimilated and condense into more general forms, into types, which he transcribes through simple short-hand formulae and symbols.” (Gordon, 1987)
The movement primarily originated in Germany and Austria. There were a number of Expressionist groups in painting, including the Blaue Reiter and Die Brucke. The Der Blaue Reiter group was based in Munich and Die Brucke was based originally in Dresden (although some later moved to Berlin). Die Brucke was active for a longer period than Der Blaue Reiter which was only truly together for a year (1912). The Expressionists had many influences, among them Munch, Vincent van Gogh, and African art. They also came to know the work being done by the Fauves in Paris.
Influenced by the Fauves, Expressionism worked with arbitrary colors as well as jarring compositions. In reaction and opposition to French impressionism which focused on rendering the sheer visual appearance of objects, Expressionist artists sought to capture emotions and subjective interpretations: It was not important to reproduce an aesthetically pleasing impression of the artistic subject matter, the Expressonists focused on capturing vivid emotional reactions through powerful colors and dynamic compositions instead. The leader of Der Blaue Reiter, Kandinsky, would take this a step further. He believed that with simple colors and shapes the spectator could perceive the moods and feelings in the paintings, therefore he made the move to abstraction.
Expressionist imagery exploded into modern art from the subconscious. Its diverse formal means and emotional effects range from anguish to exuberance. As the powerful, personal creations of modern individuals, these images have little in common except their inventive power and their reliance upon a distinctly private vision.
In late 1939, at the beginning of World War II, New York welcomed a great number of leading European artists.
The heritage of their interest in the mythic realm of the unconscious would be continued-and extended-by another group of younger, New World artists-New York School.
American Expressionism and American Figurative Expressionism particularly the Boston figurative expressionism were an integral part of American modernism around the Second World War.
Major figurative Boston expressionists included: Karl Zerbe, Hyman Bloom, Jack Levine, David Aronson, Philip Guston. The Boston figurative expressionists post World War II were increasingly marginalized by the development of abstract expressionism centered in New York City.
Later in the 20th century, after World War II, figurative expressionism influenced worldwide a large number of artists and movements. Thomas B. Hess, wrote:
“the ‘New figurative painting’ which some have been expecting as a reaction against Abstract Expressionism was implicit in it at the start, and is one of its most lineal continuities.”
Read moreShowing 1001–1100 of 1692 results
Carcass of Beef 1925
By Chaïm SoutineSizes starting at $299.00Clown, violoniste et ânes
By Marc Chagall (Inspired by)Sizes starting at $319.00Portrait De Joseph Lévi 1909
By Amedeo ModiglianiSizes starting at $299.00Ruhendes
By Paul KleeSizes starting at $309.00Castle Garden
By Paul KleeSizes starting at $279.00Confidences au cirque
By Marc Chagall (Inspired by)Sizes starting at $279.00Half-side of a Beef
By Chaïm SoutineSizes starting at $299.00Portrait of Pablo Picasso 1915
By Amedeo ModiglianiSizes starting at $319.00Calf and Red Curtain 1921
By Chaïm SoutineSizes starting at $329.00Scene On The Water
By Paul KleeSizes starting at $259.00Variante Pour le Vitrail la Paix
By Marc Chagall (Inspired by)Sizes starting at $329.00Young Gypsy 1909
By Amedeo ModiglianiSizes starting at $359.00Beef and calf’s head
By Chaïm SoutineSizes starting at $279.00Madame Dorival 1916
By Amedeo ModiglianiSizes starting at $369.00Schicksalstunde Um Dreiviertel Zwölf
By Paul KleeSizes starting at $269.00Village Sous la Neige
By Marc Chagall (Inspired by)Sizes starting at $319.00A Young Lady’s Adventure
By Paul KleeSizes starting at $299.00Dead Fowl 1924
By Chaïm SoutineSizes starting at $299.00Pink nude – Caryatid, 1914
By Amedeo ModiglianiSizes starting at $269.00When Abdullah Got the Net Ashore…
By Marc Chagall (Inspired by)Sizes starting at $319.00Au cirque
By Marc Chagall (Inspired by)Sizes starting at $349.00Dead Fowl 1926
By Chaïm SoutineSizes starting at $319.00Le Buste Rouge (Cariatide) 1913
By Amedeo ModiglianiSizes starting at $289.00Settlement By The Quarry
By Paul KleeSizes starting at $299.00Hanging Duck
By Chaïm SoutineSizes starting at $339.00La famille et le coq rouge
By Marc Chagall (Inspired by)Sizes starting at $309.00Lola De Valence 1915
By Amedeo ModiglianiSizes starting at $299.00Siedelung Im Hügelland
By Paul KleeSizes starting at $349.00Cariatide 1913
By Amedeo ModiglianiSizes starting at $299.00Hanging Turkey 1925
By Chaïm SoutineSizes starting at $279.00La peintre au chevalet à Saint-Paul
By Marc Chagall (Inspired by)Sizes starting at $329.00Signs In The Sky
By Paul KleeSizes starting at $319.00Caryatid
By Amedeo ModiglianiSizes starting at $289.00Hanging Turkey 1925 1
By Chaïm SoutineSizes starting at $279.00Le baldaquin
By Marc Chagall (Inspired by)Sizes starting at $339.00Slim Green Fir
By Paul KleeSizes starting at $319.00Caryatid 1911
By Amedeo ModiglianiSizes starting at $279.00La ferme
By Marc Chagall (Inspired by)Sizes starting at $309.00Le Canard Blanc 1925
By Chaïm SoutineSizes starting at $299.00Small Garden Ghost
By Paul KleeSizes starting at $319.00Cariatide 1913
By Amedeo ModiglianiSizes starting at $329.00Le dindon
By Chaïm SoutineSizes starting at $269.00Mére et enfant sur l’ane marron
By Marc Chagall (Inspired by)Sizes starting at $309.00Spiral Screw Flowers I
By Paul KleeSizes starting at $319.00Cypresses and Houses at Cagnes 1919
By Amedeo ModiglianiSizes starting at $269.00Le poulet plumé
By Chaïm SoutineSizes starting at $339.00Nu sur fond rouge
By Marc Chagall (Inspired by)Sizes starting at $329.00Still Life With Autumn Flowers
By Paul KleeSizes starting at $319.00L’âne vert
By Marc Chagall (Inspired by)Sizes starting at $339.00Le poulet sur fond bleu 1925
By Chaïm SoutineSizes starting at $389.00Paesaggio a Cagnes 1919
By Amedeo ModiglianiSizes starting at $299.00Still Life With Dice
By Paul KleeSizes starting at $309.00La nativité
By Marc Chagall (Inspired by)Sizes starting at $349.00Still Life
By Paul KleeSizes starting at $299.00The Chicken 1926
By Chaïm SoutineSizes starting at $289.00Dindon et tomates
By Chaïm SoutineSizes starting at $339.00Le départ d’arlequin
By Marc Chagall (Inspired by)Sizes starting at $309.00Stilleben Mit Der Distelblüte
By Paul KleeSizes starting at $259.00Le peintre à l’ange blanc
By Marc Chagall (Inspired by)Sizes starting at $329.00Les Faisans
By Chaïm SoutineSizes starting at $279.00Strange Garden
By Paul KleeSizes starting at $299.00Abraham and Sarah
By Marc Chagall (Inspired by)Sizes starting at $329.00Hanging Pheasant
By Chaïm SoutineSizes starting at $449.00Stricken City
By Paul KleeSizes starting at $299.00Nature Morte Aux Deux Perdrix Rouges 1918
By Chaïm SoutineSizes starting at $269.00Souvenir de Vitebsk
By Marc Chagall (Inspired by)Sizes starting at $329.00Stricken City
By Paul KleeSizes starting at $289.00Le Poulet à la table 1918
By Chaïm SoutineSizes starting at $279.00Place du Tertre
By Marc Chagall (Inspired by)Sizes starting at $309.00Structural I
By Paul KleeSizes starting at $389.00Les perdrix au volet vert
By Chaïm SoutineSizes starting at $289.00Musique En Plein Air
By Marc Chagall (Inspired by)Sizes starting at $309.00Tale À La Hoffmann
By Paul KleeSizes starting at $289.00Autour Du “Peintre à la Palette et au Coq
By Marc Chagall (Inspired by)Sizes starting at $329.00Les pintades
By Chaïm SoutineSizes starting at $289.00The Barbed Noose With The Mice
By Paul KleeSizes starting at $299.00Le faisan au chou
By Chaïm SoutineSizes starting at $299.00Le violoniste allongé
By Marc Chagall (Inspired by)Sizes starting at $299.00The Beginnings Of A Smile
By Paul KleeSizes starting at $299.00Le Grand faisan
By Chaïm SoutineSizes starting at $629.00Painter Crucified
By Marc Chagall (Inspired by)Sizes starting at $349.00The Chair-Animal
By Paul KleeSizes starting at $309.00Le Christ en jaune
By Marc Chagall (Inspired by)Sizes starting at $299.00The Clown Pyramidal
By Paul KleeSizes starting at $309.00The Pheasant
By Chaïm SoutineSizes starting at $449.00La Crucifixion
By Marc Chagall (Inspired by)Sizes starting at $319.00Nature morte au faisan 1924
By Chaïm SoutineSizes starting at $309.00The Firmament Above The Temple
By Paul KleeSizes starting at $389.00Le clown violoniste au cirque
By Marc Chagall (Inspired by)Sizes starting at $309.00Still Life with Fowl [Nature Morte à La Volaille]
By Chaïm SoutineSizes starting at $299.00The Heroic Tenor As A Concert Singer
By Paul KleeSizes starting at $299.00Le Colporteur
By Marc Chagall (Inspired by)Sizes starting at $429.00Plucked Goose 1933
By Chaïm SoutineSizes starting at $289.00The Hotel
By Paul KleeSizes starting at $299.00Le Lion Amoureux
By Marc Chagall (Inspired by)Sizes starting at $309.00Still Life with Rayfish 1924
By Chaïm SoutineSizes starting at $279.00The Hour Before One Night
By Paul KleeSizes starting at $319.00Le Roi David
By Marc Chagall (Inspired by)Sizes starting at $329.00Nature morte à la raie 1923
By Chaïm SoutineSizes starting at $259.00The Hypocrites
By Paul KleeSizes starting at $319.00