EXPRESSIONISM Artists and paintings

WHAT WAS EXPRESSIONISM?

¢ An artistic and modernist movement. ¢ Originating in Germany at the beginning of the

20th century. ¢ The Die Brücke and Der Blaue Reiter groups. ¢ The artist attempts to depict not objective reality

but rather the subjective emotions and responses that objects and events arouse in him.

¢ The artist accomplishes his aim through distortion, exaggeration, primitivism, and fantasy and through the vivid, jarring, violent, or dynamic application of formal elements.

TYPICAL TRAITS:

¢ To present the world solely from a subjective perspective.

¢ To distort the world radically for emotional effect in order to evoke moods or ideas.

¢ Emphasis on individual perspective. ¢ To express intense emotions. ¢ To portray emotions and subjective

interpretations. ¢ Tendency toward arbitrary colours and jarring

compositions. ¢ To represent vivid emotional reactions by

powerful colours and dynamic compositions.

DIE BRÜCKE ARTISTS AND THEIR PAINTINGS:

¢ Ernst Lüdwig Kirchner.

¢ Berlin Street Scene, 1913.

DIE BRÜCKE ARTISTS AND THEIR PAINTINGS:

¢ Erich Heckel. ¢ Landscape in Dresden, 1910.

DIE BRÜCKE ARTISTS AND THEIR PAINTINGS:

¢ Emil Nolde. ¢ Dance Around the Golden Calf, 1910.

DER BLAUE REITER ARTISTS AND THEIR PAINTINGS:

¢ Franz Marc. ¢ The Large Blue Horses, 1911.

DER BLAUE REITER ARTISTS AND THEIR PAINTINGS:

¢ Wassili Kandinsky. ¢ On White II, 1923.

DER BLAUE REITER ARTISTS AND THEIR PAINTINGS:

¢ Paul Klee. ¢ Revolving House, 1921.

DER BLAUE REITER ARTISTS AND THEIR PAINTINGS:

¢ August Macke. ¢ View into a Lane, 1914.

OTHER ARTISTS AND THEIR PAINTINGS:

¢ Max Beckmann. ¢ Party in Paris, 1931.

OTHER ARTISTS AND THEIR PAINTINGS:

¢ Oskar Kokoschka. ¢ Bride of the Wind, 1913.

OTHER ARTISTS AND THEIR PAINTINGS:

¢ Georges Rouault. ¢ Head of Christ, 1939.

OTHER ARTISTS AND THEIR PAINTINGS:

¢ Marc Chagall. ¢ Woman with a Bouquet, 1910.

KANDINSKY AND EXPRESSIONISM

¢ Kandinsky believed that with simple colours and shapes the spectator could perceive the moods and feelings in the paintings, a theory that encouraged him towards increased abstraction.

MUNICH-SCHWABING WITH THE CHURCH OF ST. URSULA, 1908.

¢ Which colours

predominate in his

painting?

¢ Do you think Kandinsky

was happy, sad or angry

when he created this

painting? Why?

¢ What can you see in the

picture?