EXPRESSIONISM

• Expressionism is an attitude/philosophy of art (not a particular style)– Artists express their personal feelings or

emotions through their artwork

• 3 artists act as the forerunners to Expressionism– Vincent Van Gogh– Edvard Munch– Pablo Picasso

Edvard Munch• “How much of my

art I owe to suffering.”

• Obsessed with death, anxiety, loss, abandonment and loneliness

– Mother died when he was 6

– Sister died a few years later

The Scream, 1893• "I was walking along the road

with two friends. The sun was setting. I felt a breath of melancholy - Suddenly the sky turned blood-red. I stopped, and leaned against the railing, deathly tired - looking out across the flaming clouds that hung like blood and a sword over the blue-black fjord and town. My friends walked on - I stood there, trembling with fear. And I sensed a great, infinite scream pass through nature."

• Sound waves flowing out of mouth into atmosphere

• Inner drama–State of mind

• Icon of anguish

• Expressive curves and colors

Death in the Sickroom, 1893• The

memory of the death of Munch`s beloved sister, Sophie

Vampire, 1893-1894

Anxiety

Paris in the late 1800’s to early 1900’s

• Large factories being built attract many people to move into the city

• Overcrowding and poor living conditions lead to disease and poverty

Pablo Picasso• Affected by the tragic mood of urban society

• Blue Period: painted derelicts, beggars and poor families with a mostly blue palette

Old Guitarist, 1903• Poet Wallace Stevens puts

words to Picasso's belief that art is the lie to help us see the truth in his poem "The Man with the Blue Guitar." – "They said, 'You have a blue

guitar, / You do not play things as they are.' / The man replied, 'Things as they are / Are changed upon the blue guitar.”

Abstract Expressionism

• Influenced by the aftermath of WW II

• Many European artists had fled to the US and New York begins to dominate the art scene

• Large scale works w/ expression of feeling through slashing, active brushstrokes

Jackson Pollock• “Jack the Dripper”• Series of drip paintings

– Laid canvas on floor and freely dripped, spilled, and threw color onto canvas

• Emphasis on Action Painting– The ACT of creating the

painting becomes more important than the painting itself

– Idea of “controlled accident”

• "When I am in my painting, I'm not aware of what I'm doing. It is only after a sort of "get acquainted" period that I see what I have been about. I have no fears about making changes, destroying the image, etc., because the painting has a life of its own. I try to let it come through. It is only when I lose contact with the painting that the result is a mess. Otherwise there is pure harmony, an easy give and take, and the painting comes out well."

Number 1 (Lavender Mist),1950

• Intended to be flat in appearance, non-objective• “The painting has a life of its own. I try to let it come

through.''

• Instead of using brushes he applied paint with sticks, trowels or knives

Check out

this website!

It’s pretty

cool!

Jacksonpollock.org