Expressionism Fauvism Magali Benitez What is expressionism Expressionism

Expressionism & Fauvism Magali Benitez

What is expressionism? ❖ Expressionism was a modernist movement originating in Germany at the beginning of the 20 th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it radically for emotional effect in order to evoke moods or ideas. Expressionist artists sought to express the meaning of emotional experience rather than physical reality. ❖ It remained popular during the Weimar Republic, particularly in Berlin. The style extended to a wide range of the arts, including expressionist architecture, painting, literature, theatre, dance, film and music. ❖ The Expressionist emphasis on individual perspective has been characterized as a reaction to positivism and other artistic styles such as Naturalism and Impressionism.

The Sick Child ❖ ❖ Artist: Edvard Munch Created: 1907 Medium: Oil paint on canvas Purpose: It touches on the fragility of life and draws upon Munch’s personal memories, including the trauma of his sister’s death, and visits to dying patients with his doctor father. ➢ Years later the Nazis declared that Munch’s art was ‘degenerate’ and, in November 1938, all his works in German public collections were collected in Berlin for auction.

Woman with a Bag ❖ ❖ Artist: Karl Schmidt-Rottluff Created: 1915 Medium: Oil paint on canvas Purpose: Its first owner felt that the dark colours and tragic expression of the portrait were a response to the misery of wartime. ➢ The woman’s face is elongated, with extended cheeks and nose, in the manner of West African masks. By contrast, her clothes and accessories are those of a fashionable European.

What is fauvism? ❖ Fauvism is the style of les Fauves (French for "the wild beasts") ❖ A group of early twentieth-century modern artists had works that emphasized painterly qualities and strong color over the representational or realistic values retained by Impressionism. ❖ While Fauvism as a style began around 1904 and continued beyond 1910, the movement as such lasted only a few years, 1905– 1908, and had three exhibitions. The leaders of the movement were André Derain and Henri Matisse.

Henri Matisse ❖ ❖ Artist: André Derain Created: 1905 Medium: Oil paint on canvas Purpose: Under Matisse’s influence, Derain had begun to use strong, non-naturalistic colours, applied in small separate brushstrokes, to convey the sensations of light and shade. Their radical use of colour led critics to describe them and their associates as ‘Fauves’ or wild beasts, and ‘Fauvism’ became an important parallel to the rise of Expressionism in Germany. ➢ This work was made during a holiday at the fishing port of Collioure in the south of France in 1905, when Matisse and Derain painted portraits of each other.

The River Seine at Chatou ❖ ❖ Artist: Maurice de Vlaminck Created: 1906 Medium: Oil paint on canvas Purpose: He used impasto: thick daubs of paint applied directly from the tube, then brushed together in short strokes to create the effect of movement. For the water and sky, he used a range of blues and greens, as well as dazzling white highlights applied in choppy dabs; the two red-andorange trees at the left provide a lively contrast. The finished effect is one of brightness and vibrating motion; detail and traditional perspective matter far less than a sense of buoyant pleasure. ➢ This scene depicts the portion of the Seine that runs through Chatou, the Paris suburb where de Vlaminck and Derain shared a studio beginning in 1901.