ExpressionismPosted by nshirodkar on August 25th, 2010 At the beginning of the 20th century, a cultural movement started in painting and poetry. It was the Expressionism. It began in Germany. Its remarkable feature is to depict the world in an utmost subjective perspective, violently twisting it to get an emotional effect and intensely transmit personal ideas and moods. Expressionist artists expressed the meaning of "to be alive" and emotional happenings rather than physical incidents.Expressionism came up as an 'avant-grade movement' in painting and poetry before the World War I, in the Weimar years, and was popularized in a majority of audience, having its fame at peak in Berlin, in the 1920s. The Expressionist impact on the individual approach was also a response to positivism and the other art movements like naturalism and impressionism. The movement emerged mainly to challenge the traditions in the academic field. Modern expressionism was originated by philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche who acted as a channel for formerly neglected trends in ancient art. The 'Birth of Tragedy' by Nietzsche presented his theory of two types of aesthetic experience, the Apollonian and the Dionysian, a dualism between the plastic 'art of sculpture' , of melodious dream-inspiration, regularity, order, and serenity and on the other hand, the non-plastic 'art of music' of excitement, chaos, and the enthusiastic dissolution of individuality in the collective. It signifies the relationship between the two Greek godsons, who are incomparable, yet inseparable. Nietzsche's proposition is both these elements exist in any artistic creation. The basic traits of expressionism are Dionysian, that is, bold colors, chaotic forms-in-dissolution, two-dimensional, with no perspective. More commonly the term is taken to be the expression of strong emotions. It can be argued that all artists do express their emotions strongly in their artworks, but there was a long series of artistic creations in which deep emphasis is given on communication through emotions. Such an art generally occurs during social upheaval and through the practice of graphic art. There is a mighty and dynamic record of chaos in Europe in the 15th century on the Protestant Reformation, Eight Year's War, Peasants' War, Spanish Occupation of the Netherlands, and so on. Expressionism primarily started in Germany and Austria. There were plenty of Expressionist groups in painting, like Der Blaue Reiter and Die Brucke. The former was based in Munich, while the later in Dresden. Die Brucke was active for quite a longer period than Der Blaue Reiter which was together only for a year. Inspired by the Fauves in Paris, Expressionism used fanciful colors as well as jarring compositions. Some expressionists' masterpieces are 'Fighting Forms' and 'Rehe im Walde' by Franz Marc, 'Pair of Women' by Egon Schiele, 'Diego Rivera' by Amendo Modigliani, 'Elbe Bridge I' by Rolf Nesch, 'On White II' by Wassily Kandinsky, 'View of Toledo' by El Greco and many others. Like it? Share it! More by this author |