POST-IMPRESSIONISM · POST-IMPRESSIONISM BACKGROUND: Post-Impressionism is a predominantly French...
Transcript of POST-IMPRESSIONISM · POST-IMPRESSIONISM BACKGROUND: Post-Impressionism is a predominantly French...
POST-IMPRESSIONISMGRADE 11 ART THEORY
POST-IMPRESSIONISM BACKGROUND:
Post-Impressionism is a predominantly French Art Movement developed
between 1886 and 1905.
It focused on emotion rather than realism.
Artists use vibrant colors, geometric forms and gestural brushwork.
Post-Impressionism is a blanket term for the many reactions against
realism.
The artists of Post-Impressionism were united to overturn the
superficiality of Impressionism. They felt that their obsession of technique
was overshadowing the importance of their work.
CHARACTERISTICS:
The impressionist rejected painting “en plein air” like the impressionists,
they instead looked at their memories and the emotions to
connect with the viewer on a deeper level.
They used symbolic and personal meanings important to the artist.
There were many varied styles under Post-Impressionism.
Structure, order, and the optical effects of color dominated the work of the
Impressionists.
The Impressionists did not just represent their surroundings, they relied
upon the interrelations of color and shape to describe the world around
them.
PAUL CÉZANNE (1839-1906)
The Salon de Refuses inspired Cézanne as he saw
the wide range of colours the Impressionists use
and he began to do the same.
He quickly saw the weakness of Impressionism and
wanted to do something more durable as seen in
the Old Masters.
After the death of his father he developed his own
style.
He worked in planes of colour and short
brushstrokes.
INFLUENCES:
Cézanne was influenced by Courbet and Delacroix because of the
structure of their work. Cézanne did an extensive study of the Old
Masters in the Louvre.
Impressionism as Cézanne loved the bright colours, but felt that they
neglected shape and structure in their work by focusing on colour and
brushwork.
Mont Saint-Victoire (Saint-Victoire Mountain) was one of Cézanne’s
favourite subjects to paint. Cézanne was fascinated by the architectural
forms in the mountain.
CHARACTERISTICS:
Subject Matter:
Cézanne had limited number of subjects such as still life's, landscapes, bathers and
portraits.
He was notorious for taking long with people sitting for portraits.
Space and Depth:
Cézanne rejected one point perspective where all lines lead back to one
point. This created a shallow space in his artworks and his perspective was
often incorrect.
Cézanne was aware of the flatness of the canvas and created a flat space.
Colour:
Cézanne used the bright colours of the Impressionists but in a structured
way.
He tried to make one colour area relate to the next- this is known as
modulation.
He outlined his shapes with dark contour lines and the shadows around
his shapes were solid.
Brushwork:
Cézanne’s brushstrokes were placed with a firmness and with thought.
Cézanne used rectangular brushstrokes which did not express emotion.
Composition:
Cézanne used the underlying structure of the shapes in his work, like the
cylinder, the sphere and the cone. He only gave these shapes the essential
details.
Approach:
Cézanne is classified as a formalist because he worked intellectually and
the arrangement of the formal elements were extremely important to
him.
Cézanne was interested in the never changing, underlying structure of
shapes.
Cézanne never worked to a formula, every painting was a new
challenge.
Cézanne holds the honorary title of the “Father of Modern Art” as
many 20th Century artists were inspired by his work. His influence is
seen in Cubism.
STILL-LIFE WITH BASKET OF APPLES, 1890-1894, OIL
ON CANVAS
Everything was deliberately placed with
this still life, though it seems accidental.
There are some major errors with
proportions and perspective, the line at
the back of the table does not line up.
The bottle is oddly tipped and the
cookies on the right look oddly
stacked, the bottom layers viewed from
the side, but others viewed from the
top.
Look at the
painting closely, its
almost as if
Cézanne moved
as he was painting
certain elements,
changing the angle
he was looking at
the different
objects in the
arrangement.
THE LARGE BATHERS, 1898-1906, OIL ON CANVAS
Cézanne did not pay attention to
proportion and anatomy and the
bodies seem solid and solid. Not a soft
nude.
He does go back to the traditional
Renaissance pyramid composition.
The figures are elongated and
unfinished. There is a heaviness to
them.
He’s not looking at a nude in his studio,
the nudes lend themselves to the
scene.
Diana and Actaeon, Titian,
1556–1559, Oil on canvas.
This artwork by Titian is
direct inspiration for the
composition of the Large
Bathers.
VINCENT VAN GOGH (1853-1890)
Van Gogh was born in Groot-Zundert,
Holland.
He worked for an art dealer in Brussels for
seven years. He worked at various branches
in Paris and London.
He worked as a missionary in Borignage, a
coal mining district in Belgium where the
suffering of the poverty stricken community
shocked him.
He dedicated his life to painting after that.
THE POTATO EATERS, 1885, OIL ON CANVAS
This is an early example of Van
Gogh’s work.
Van Gogh wanted to show the
colourlessness of the lives of
the lives of the mineworkers
and labourers with somber
colours.
Van Gogh was still
experimenting with
proportions and faces.
VAN GOGH’S LIFE:
In 1886 he went to live in Paris with his brother Theo who was an art dealer.
He was inspired by the light colours in Japanese wood prints.
He painted 200 paintings and was inspired by the countryside but eventually
moved to Arles and invited Paul Gaugin to stay with him in October1888.
Within 2 months of them staying together Van Gogh suffered a nervous
breakdown and attempted to take Gaugin’s life.
After the confrontation, Van Gogh fled to a brothel. While there he cut a
small part of his left ear lobe and presented it to a prostitute and told her to
“keep this object carefully”.
Gauguin eventually found Van Gogh unconscious and with his head covered in
blood. He was taken to hospital and was in a critical condition for several days.
Gaugin moved out and Van Gogh recovered but continued to have frequent
violent relapses.
Van Gogh checked himself into the Saint-Remy-de-Provence Institution in May
1889.
After Saint-Remy-de-Provence he continued to paint and this is where the swirling
patterns and curves started to appear in his work.
His inner conflicts were shown through the brushstrokes in his work.
He sold one painting in his life, Red Vineyard near Arles, in 1890.
He was continuously troubled by his financial dependence on his brother, Theo.
and his own declining health.
He took his own life in 1890 and his brother, Theo died 6 months later.
Theo’s widow collected Vincent’s work and held many retrospective exhibitions.
He became famous almost instantly.
Vincent Van Gogh
Pictured 1873
Theo Van Gogh
Pictured 1878
Johanna Van Gogh-Bonger
Theo Van Gogh’s Widow
Pictured 1889
“I cannot help it that my paintings do not sell. The time will come when people will see that they
are worth more than the price of paint.” Vincent Van Gogh
Red Vineyard near
Arles, 1888, oil on
canvas
INFLUENCES:
The social commentary and empathy for the poor in Van Gogh’s work is
reminiscent of the work of Millet (realism).
Van Gogh was influenced by Delacroix in the way he uses complimentary
colours next to each other.
The clear and bright outlines of Japanese wood prints.
The bright colours and informal technique of Impressionism.
His own personality and humanity and need to express himself
influenced the way he approached his work.
CHARACTERISTICS:
Subject Matter:
Landscapes, portraits, still lifes and interiors.
Van Gogh always worked from in reality, but he portrayed his emotional
reaction to the subject.
Space and Depth:
There is always feeling of depth in Van Gogh’s work.
He often placed large masses in the middle of the canvas.
Van Gogh used line perspective and the horizon is three- quarters up the
canvas.
Colour:
Van Gogh is known for his emotional use of colour.
His use of colour started as somber and became lighter under the
influence of the impressionists.
The colour in his later works was over emphasised to portray his
emotions. Van Gogh placed yellows often against blues and violets.
Brushwork:
Van Gogh’s brushwork was a physical indicator of his emotional state
and they create a rhythmic movements in his work.
There is a strong linear character to the application of paint with
strong outlines.
Van Gogh applied paint with a brush or palette knife or straight from
the tube.
Compostion:
Van Gogh simplified and distorted shapes.
No unnecessary detail was given, only the essence of a scene.
Van Gogh worked from reality and the essence of the subject
was depicted to which he reacted to emotionally.
Approach to his work:
No painter before Van Gogh gave such a portrayal of his inner
feelings.
His art therefore personal and subjective.
His quick execution, distortion of shapes and emphasis of
colour contrasts are typical.
He is regarded as the father 20th century Expressionism as he
influenced Munch and the German Expressionists.
THE NIGHT CAFÉ, 1888, OIL ON CANVAS
It depicts the interior of a pool
café in the town.
Two-thirds of the painting is the
floor of the café painted in
sulphuric yellow with exaggerated
lines of the perspective that pull
the eye into the painting.
The pool table stands out with a
dark outline in contrast to the
figure with the light coloured coat.
The patrons of the bar are all hunched over in a late-night stupor (a state
of near-unconsciousness or insensibility).
The blood red walls lead up to a bright green.
The lamps on the ceiling are surrounded by Van Gogh’s wheels of curving
yellow brush strokes.
The colour of this work is the main thing that draws you in, then you
notice the exaggerated perspective of the bar.
Van Gogh himself has said of this painting: “It is the ugliest painting I have
ever done.”
Van Gogh also says of this work: “I have tried to express the terrible
passions of mankind by means of red and green. I have tried to express the
idea that the café is a place where one can ruin oneself, run mad or commit
a crime. So I have tried to express as it where the powers of darkness in a
low drink shop.”
STARRY NIGHT,1889, OIL ON CANVAS
Starry Night was painted whilst Van
Gogh was in the asylum at Saint-
Remy-de-Provence.
The focus of this artwork is the
night sky filled with swirling clouds
and stars ablaze with their own
luminescence and a bright crescent
moon.
Below the hills is a peaceful little
village.
The church spire stands out in the town, almost protecting it. The spire is
the center point of the painting.
To the left of the painting is a massive cypress tree. The curving lines
mirror the swirls in the sky. This helps create depth in the painting.
The swirls in the sky guides the eye around the painting, following the
curves and swirls.
Van Gogh used thick impasto paint that forms strong lines.
The winding lines were transformed to look like exploding stars in the sky
and geometric forms in the village.
The sky was painted quickly and thickly.
The motivation of the painting was emotional as the scene in the painting
is not what Van Gogh could see from his room in Saint-Remy-de-Provence.
The contrast between the dark blues and blacks of the night and the light
in the sky and the village is a scream for hope, light and love.
PAUL GAUGUIN (1848-1903):
Gauguin was born in Paris and in his early life
he travelled to Peru and upon his return he
became a stock broker and French Polynesia.
In 1888 he joined Van Gogh in Arles. After Van
Gogh’s psychotic break and Gauguin returned
to Paris the two never spoke again.
In 1891 Gaugin was broke and sailed to the
Polynesian Islands to escape European
civilization.
He hoped to find artistic rejuvenation by living among “primitive” people
and culture.
Except for one trip back to Paris, he spent the rest of his life in the South
Sea Islands.
First Gauguin stayed in Tahiti, then the Marquesas Islands.
Gauguin had many conflicts with the colonial authorities during his stays on
the Polynesian Islands.
Gaugin was looking for a primitive idyll (like an idyll; extremely happy,
peaceful, or picturesque).
He spent his last years in sickness and poverty.
INFLUENCES:
In his early work he was influenced Impressionism.
Gauguin was always on the lookout for exotic places because the
“primitive” societies were “not polluted by Western ideas and values.
Primitivism is an art term that refers to the ‘borrowing’ of visual forms
from non-western or prehistoric peoples. We would not use the term
primitive as it is derogatory and reflects colonial thinking of superiority.
CHARACTERISTICS:
Subject Matter:
Gauguin believed that the artist should work from memory to create imaginative
works.
He often used religious and spiritual themes.
The portrayal of man is important in his work. In his later works he created
idealized figures from the South Sea Islands.
Space/Depth:
Gauguin made use of flat space created by horizontal bands of colour
Gauguin’s work became flat surfaces filled with bright colours with no attempt at
creating a naturalistic portrayal.
Colour:
Gauguin believed that colour was symbolic and imaginative. No modeling
was represented.
He made use of flat, decorative shapes.
His backgrounds are as bright as the foregrounds.
Gauguin made use of Cloisonnism is a style of post-Impressionist painting
with bold and flat forms separated by dark contours.
Brushwork:
Gauguin made use of broad parallel brushstrokes in a simplified
application.
He avoided modeling the flat areas of colour with dark lines.
Composition:
Gauguin placed equal importance on positive and negative shapes.
He often used rhythmic decorative shapes to create strong two-dimensional
shapes.
He did not copy from nature, but worked from his imagination.
Monumental simplified figures were created.
Approach to his work:
Gauguin called his style “Synthetism”. This is a type of symbolism where the artist
uses his imagination, because memory only remembers that which is meaningful
or symbolic. Thus the painting is a simplification of reality characterized by flat
colour areas, no shadows and the freedom to interpret shapes and to simplify
them.
He was strongly opposed to naturalism.
Gauguin works are seen as mysterious and exotic and directly influenced
fauvism.
Two Tahitian Women, 1899,
Oil on Canvas
Where do we come from? What are we? Where are we going to?
1897, Oil on Canvas
By the Sea, 1892,
Oil on Canvas
VISION AFTER THE SERMON, 1888, OIL ON CANVAS
This is an early work of Gauguin.
This work depicts how after a
moving church service the
religious Breton women see a
vision of Jacob wrestling with the
angel.
The wrestling images are based on
a Japanese woodprint by Hokusia.
Gauguin himself described the image as severe.
The wrestling figures are shown on a field of red rather than a green field as
this is showing the supernatural state.
For Gauguin, the first element to be freed from reality was colour. To him it
shows emotional expression.
The tree separates the earthly from the spiritual.
There is a clear break from naturalism with his use of flat spaces.
There is a bit of perspective with the figures getting smaller and smaller to
the left.
Synthetism is present with the black outlines separating the figures from the
background.
This work shows Gauguin’s idea of art as symbolic and simplified.
THE DAY OF GOD, 1894, OIL ON CANVAS
This work is a representation of
Gauiguin’s imaginative
interpretation of Polynesian
mythology.
The statue in the center of the
painting is supposed to be the
Maori god Taaroa and in the
mythology he creator of the
world and chief of the gods in
Maori culture.
The two women in white on the left are taking gifts to the statue and the women
on the right are performing a religious dance.
On the left is a musician playing a flute like instrument and on the right is a
universal mother and child portrayal.
Gauguin is referring to many sources such as Egyptian hieroglyphics if you look at
the profiles of the figures in white.
The naked figures in front seem to represent creation, especially the figure on
the right in the fetus position (like an embryo in the womb).
The shapes in the water is unusual as the colours are not very natural, they are
perhaps rocks or shadows or just decorative reflections to give the composition
mood and rhythm. There are many flat areas and non-naturalistic colours.
The clouds match the water as being almost mirror images.
This work was created from Gauguin’s imagination focusing on man’s fascination
with religion.