EXPRESSIONISM

Revision

Introduction

• The name Expressionism is used to refer to the German art of the early 20th century.

• This is a European phenomenon that had two branches:– The France based group developed the Fauvism – The German branch paved the way for Der Blaue

Reiter.

Phylosophy

• The name tends to reflect their opposition to the Impressionism.

• The Expressionism is a movement from the inside to the outside.

• Its attitude can be even aggressive. • The movement has something in common with the

Impressionism:– both movements are realistic and– both ask for the full compromise of the artists in the

matter of the reality.

• The expressionist are involved in their society, they do not escape from it.

History

• The first German Expressionism was born in 1905 with the movement known as Die Brüke that is related to the national figurative tradition.

• The artists understood the world as a deep existential condition of the human being: – the desire of having the reality – and the anguish of being possessed by the

reality

Die Brücke

• Die Brücke is a solid artists’ community with a written programme.

• Members of the group are:– Kirchner,– Nolde,– Schiele, – Kokoschka.

• The German situation of the time was obscure, with different artistic influences.

• Die Brücke proposed the union of the revolutionary element to fight against the Impressionism.

Die Brücke

• Characteristics:– it is a realism that creates reality; – they begin from nothing, just from the

artist ideas; – the matter influences on the artist; – the subjects reflect daily life (streets,

people in the cafes); – the works are a bit rude

Die Brücke

• In their opinion technique is not something that can be invented, it is just work.

• It is important the dominance of graphics, especially xylography, in which the carving can be violent and the result is sometimes irregular.

• Technique:– the painting is dense, full of colour, with stains

and lack of hues; – it is more important the process than the result.

Die Brücke

• The artist works directly on the image and chooses the colours depending on their mood.

• Deformations are common and they are sometimes aggressive.

• They find their inspiration in the work of primitive cultures.

• They do not have a concept of beauty, for them it changes to be ugliness, deformity: it is the poetry of the awful

Die Brücke

• Expressionist artists renounce to be bourgeois and criticise this social group.

• In their opinion, existence is self-creation and they oppose to the industrial work that creates a dehumanized society.

• They are obsessed with the subject of sex because the relation of men and women is the basis of the society

• They consider that society– deforms, – is perverse, – is negative,– alienates.

Der Blaue Reiter• Die Brücke was dissolved in 1913 when the group Der

Blaue Reiter started its investigation with a less compromised attitude.

• Members of this group are:– Beckmann, – Dix, – Grosz, – Marc,– Macke,– Kandinsky,– Klee.

• They do not have a defined programme. And their orientation is more spiritual.

Der Blaue Reiter

• Their objective is to coordinate international exhibitions to foster their polemic writings

• The ideas of the artists of this group are not revolutionary but it is anti-classicist.

• They are influenced by Matisse, oriental art and even music.

• Symbols are limited to common objects while the aesthetic communication is dominant.

Der Blaue Reiter

• Characteristics of the movement are:– importance of the colour and its

significance; – primitivism;– improvisation; – inclusion of different lines and shapes:

• curves, • zigzags,• stain;

– art is understood as communication.