The Development of Modernist Art
    
       
  Revolution and World War :: Expressionism in Early 20th-Century Europe :: Embracing Abstraction :: Challenging Artistic Conventions :: Transatlantic Artistic Dialogues :: European Art in the Wake of World War I :: New Art for A New Society-Utopian Ideals :: Emphasizing the Organic :: Art As Political Statement in the 1930s :: Émigrés and Exiles: Energizing American Art at Midcentury   Images courtesy of
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  EXPRESSIONISM IN EARLY-20TH-CENTURY EUROPE

Expressionism refers to art that is the result of the artist's unique inner or personal vision and that often has an emotional dimension.

Fauvism

The Fauves movement, which appeared in 1905, pursued an art that was direct and anti-theoretical and also used intense, emotionally charged color juxtapositions. The Fauves wished to liberate color from its descriptive function and to use it for both expressive and structural ends.

The primacy of color:

In his Woman With the Hat, Henri Matisse uses seemingly arbitrary colors juxtaposed in ways that sometimes produce jarring contrasts.

33-1: HENRI MATISSE, Woman with the Hat, 1905. Oil on canvas, 2' 7 3/4" x 1' 11 1/2". San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco (bequest of Elise S. Haas).
  1. Woman with the Hat
  2. Woman with the Hat
  3. Woman with the Hat
  4. Woman with the Hat
  5. Woman with the Hat
From green, to blue, to red:

The simplified and schematized objects and flattened out forms in Matisse's Red Room (Harmony in Red) are painted with rich and intense colors that are selected and juxtaposed to generate a feeling of warmth and comfort.

33-2: HENRI MATISSE, Red Room (Harmony in Red), 1908-1909. Oil on canvas, approx. 5' 11" x 8' 1". State Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg.
  1. Red Room
  2. Red Room
  3. Red Room
  4. Red Room
  5. Red Room
Expressing content with color:

In André Derain's London Bridge, light and shadow are indicated by contrasts of hue. Color both delineates space and expresses the picture's content.

33-3: ANDRÉ DERAIN, The Dance, 1906. Oil on canvas, 6' 7/8" x 6' 10 1/4". Fridart Foundation, London.
  1. Other Paintings
  2. Another Derain Painting
German Expressionism: Die Brücke

The German Expressionists sought expressiveness through distortions of form, ragged outline, and agitated brushstrokes. Under the leadership of Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, the German Expressionists thought of themselves as paving the way for a more perfect age by bridging the old age to the new. From this concept, they derived their name Die Brücke (The Bridge).

Urban life in prewar Dresden:

Kirchner's expressive Street, Dresden shows the frenzied urban activity of a bustling German city before the First World War. The scene is jarring and dissonant and the harshly rendered figures, painted in garish, clashing colors, appear somewhat menacing and confrontational.

33-4: ERNST LUDWIG KIRCHNER, Street, Dresden, 1908 (dated 1907). Oil on canvas, 4' 11 1/4" x 6' 6 7/8". Museum of Modern Art, New York (purchase).
  1. Street, Dresden
  2. Street, Dresden
  3. Street, Dresden
  4. Street, Dresden
  5. Street, Dresden
Lust and lechery:

Emil Nolde's visceral and forceful interpretation of Saint Mary of Egypt among Sinners uses distortions of form, jarringly juxtaposed color, and raw brushstrokes to amplify the harshness and brutal ugliness of the leering faces.		    
       
  33-5: EMIL NOLDE, Saint Mary of Egypt among Sinners, 1912. Left panel of a triptych, oil on canvas, approx. 2' 10" x 3' 3". Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg.
  1. Saint Mary of Egpyt
  2. Saint Mary of Egypt
German Expressionism: Der Blaue Reiter

Wassily Kandinsky and Franz Marc founded the German Expressionist group Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider) in Munich in 1911. They sought to capture their feelings in visual form while also eliciting intense visceral responses from viewers.

Blueprints for Enlightenment:

Kandinsky was one of the first artists to explore complete abstraction. In Improvisation 28 he eliminated representational elements. Guided by his interest in theosophy and the spiritual, Kandinsky believed that artists can use color, form, line, and space to express the spirit and their innermost feelings.		  
       
  33-6: VASSILY KANDINSKY, Improvisation 28 (second version), 1912. Oil on canvas, 3' 7 7/8" x 5' 3 7/8". Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York (gift of Solomon R. Guggenheim, 1937).
  1. Improvisation 28
  2. Improvisation 28
  3. Improvisation 28
Expressing an inner truth:

Franz Marc painted animals using a system of colors expressing specific feelings or ideas. Animals' Fate is painted with severe and brutal colors.

33-7: FRANZ MARC, Fate of the Animals, 1913. Oil on canvas, 6' 4 3/4" x 8' 9 1/2". Kunstmuseum, Basel.
  1. Fate of the Animals
  2. Fate of the Animals
  3. Fate of the Animals
  4. Fate of the Animals
  5. Fate of the Animals

  
       
 
 
       
       
  Revolution and World War :: Expressionism in Early 20th-Century Europe :: Embracing Abstraction :: Challenging Artistic Conventions :: Transatlantic Artistic Dialogues :: European Art in the Wake of World War I :: New Art for A New Society-Utopian Ideals :: Emphasizing the Organic :: Art As Political Statement in the 1930s :: Émigrés and Exiles: Energizing American Art at Midcentury