In part a reaction against Impressionism and academic art, Expressionism was inspired most heavily by the Symbolist currents in late th -century art. Vincent van Gogh , Edvard Munch , and James Ensor proved particularly influential to the Expressionists, encouraging the distortion of form and the deployment of strong colors to convey a variety of anxieties and yearnings.
The classic phase of the Expressionist movement lasted from approximately to and spread throughout Europe. Its example would later powerfully inform many individuals, and groups such as: Abstract Expressionism , Neo-Expressionism , and The School of London. On a walk he took with two friends at sunset, Edvard Munch described how "suddenly, the sky turned as red as blood..
Tongues of fire and blood stretched over the bluish black fjord. My friends went on walking, while I lagged behind, shivering with fear. Then I heard the enormous, infinite scream of nature. Throughout his artistic career, Munch focused on scenes of death, agony, and anxiety in distorted and emotionally charged portraits, all themes and styles that would be adopted by the Expressionists.
Here, in Munch's most famous painting, he depicts the battle between the individual and society. The setting of The Scream was suggested to the artist while walking along a bridge overlooking Oslo; as Munch recalls, "the sky turned as red as blood. I stopped and leaned against the fence The representation of the artist's emotional response to a scene would form the basis of the Expressionists' artistic interpretations.
The theme of individual alienation, as represented in this image would persist throughout the 20 th century, captivating Expressionist artists as a central feature of modern life. This breakthrough canvas is a deceptively simple image - a lone rider racing across a landscape - yet it represents a decisive moment in Kandinsky's developing pictorial language.
Here, the sun-dappled hillside reveals a keen interest in contrasts of light and dark as well as movement and stillness, all major themes throughout his oeuvre. Constituting a link between Post-Impressionism and the burgeoning Expressionist movements, Kandinsky's canvas became the emblem of the expressive possibilities embraced by the Munich avant-garde.
This is the eponymous work from which the collective derived its name in The esteemed art historians Hans Tietze and Erica Tietze-Conrat commissioned this portrait by Kokoschka for their art collection.
The colorful background and concentrated gestures of the figures represent the couple as "closed personalities so full of tension," as the artist once called them. As in many of his portraits, Kokoschka focuses on the inner drama of his subjects, here, using the couple's nervous hands as a focal point of their anxiety. His rendering depicts the way the artist perceived the couple's psyche, not necessarily their physical, naturalistic appearances.
Kokoschka's emotional representation is emblematic of the Expressionist style. The swirling, abstract colors that obscure the background and emerge around them are characteristic of Kokoschka's frenetic, depthless renderings of space throughout his oeuvre. Content compiled and written by Justin Wolf.
Edited and published by The Art Story Contributors. The Art Story. The Neue Sachlichkeit New Objectivity movement was influenced by the highly emotional tenets of Expressionism, while the Neo-Expressionists emerged in Germany and then in the United States reprising the earlier Expressionist style. Skip to main content. Log in Sign up Home. Contact us. Your Benefits Join as an Artist F. Missing you Motivational.
The artist's expressive style has proved highly influential on subsequent generations. Austrian artists such as Oskar Kokoschka and Egon Schiele , were inspired by German Expressionism, but interpreted the style in their individual and personalized manners never forming an official association like the Germans. Kokoschka and Schiele sought to express the decadence of modern Austria through similarly expressive representations of the human body; by sinuous lines, garish colors, and distorted figures, both artists imbued their subjects with highly sexual and psychological themes.
Although Kokschka and Schiele were the central proponents of the movement in Austria, Kokoschka became increasingly involved in German Expressionist circles; he left Austria and moved to Germany in Initially Kokoschka worked in a Viennese Art Nouveau style, but starting in he instinctively worked as an Expressionist, passionately seeking to expose an inner sensibility of the sitter in his early portraits. Schiele left Vienna in but remained in Austria, where he worked and exhibited until his death in the worldwide influenza epidemic of While certain artists rejected Expressionism, others would continue to expand upon its innovations as a style.
For example, in the s, Kandinsky transitioned to completely non-objective paintings and watercolors, which emphasized color balance and archetypal forms, rather than figurative representation.
However, Expressionism would have its most direct impact in Germany and would continue to shape its art for decades afterwards. After World War I, Expressionism began to lose impetus and fragment. The Neue Sachlichkeit New Objectivity movement developed as a direct response to the highly emotional tenets of Expressionism, while the Neo-Expressionists emerged in Germany and then in the United States much later in the 20 th century, reprising the earlier Expressionist style.
Already by , the Dada manifesto claimed, "Expressionism These artists sought, as the name suggests, an unsentimental and objective approach to artistic production. Their naturalistic renderings of individuals and urban scenes highlighted this new aesthetic and paralleled the general attitude of practicality that characterized Weimar culture. The emergence of Georg Baselitz 's paintings of layered, vibrant colors and distorted figures in the s, and of Anselm Kiefer's images buried amidst thick impasto built up from a variety of materials on the canvas in the s, signaled an important and influential revival of the style within Germany, which would eventually culminate in a global Neo-Expressionist movement in the s.
Artists in New York City, like Julian Schnabel , also employed thick layers of paint, unnatural color palettes and gestural brushwork to hearken back to the Expressionist movement earlier in the 20 th century. The original Expressionist movement's ideas about spirituality, primitivism, and the value of abstract art would also be hugely influential on an array of unrelated movements, including Abstract Expressionism. The Expressionists' metaphysical outlook and instinctive discomfort with the modern world impelled them to antagonistic attitudes that would continue to be characteristic of various avant-garde movements throughout the century.
Content compiled and written by Justin Wolf. Edited and published by The Art Story Contributors. The Art Story. Ways to support us. Expressionism - History and Concepts Started: Key Artists Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. Quick view Read more. Wassily Kandinsky. A member of the German Expressionist group Der Blaue Reiter, and later a teacher at the Bauhaus, Kandinsky is best known for his pioneering breakthrough into expressive abstraction in His work prefigures that of the American Abstract Expressionists.
Paul Klee. The Swiss-born painter Paul Klee worked in a variety of styles, including Expressionism, geometric abstraction, and collage. His most famous works have a mystical quality and make use of linear and pictorial symbols.
Chaim Soutine.
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