Expressionism began in Germany, and came about during a period of widespread anxiety and growing disconnect from the world, along with a lost feeling of spirituality. It was also a reaction against Impressionism and academic art. The movement spread across Europe and later turned into Abstract Expressionism. Each country had its own group of famous painters. In Germany, it was Kirchner, In Russia it was Kadinsky and in Austria there was Kokoshka and Shiele.
Two very well known expressionist painters are Edvard Munch and Vincent Van Gogh. They were both very influential on expressionist art, using distortion of form and strong colours to convey yearning and feelings of anxiety. Expressionism was about what came from within the artist rather than a depiction of the external visual world. This changed the standard for assessing the artist’s work, because now the quality of art was based on the artist’s feelings rather than an analysis of the composition. Many expressionist artists used swirling brushstrokes and exaggerations in their depictions of subjects, which conveyed the emotional state of the artists during a time of anxiety. Artists would often paint the modern day world with alienated individuals, which was a psychological by-product of recent urbanization.
One of the most famous paintings of the time was Munch’s The Scream.
Throughout his career, Munch focused on scenes of death, agony, and anxiety and painted portraits that were emotionally charged and distorted. In his painting, the scream, Munch depicts the battle between the individual and society. The inspiration for this painting came to him while walking along a bridge in Oslo. He describes the scene: “the sky turned as red as blood. I stopped and leaned against the fence…shivering with fear. Then I heard the enormous, infinite scream of nature.” The painting doesn’t show reality for what it is but rather the way the artist perceives it, we can see that this is the artist’s emotional response to a scene. And he captures the theme of individual alienation, which is exemplified in many other work of the same period.
Van Gogh was another expressionist, and one of the most famous artists of all time.
The painting Starry Night shows a dreamy interpretation of the artist’s view from an asylum in Saint-Remy-de-Provence. The beautiful colours and swirling patterns draws the viewers in and it is believed that the cypress tree and the sky represent the connection between the earth and the heavens. Starry Night is an icon of modern art.
Expressionism wasn’t limited to paintings in Europe. It was an international movement for all art forms, such as in architecture, literature, and performance. After World War Two, an abstract form of expressionism developed in America, known as abstract expressionism.
https://www.britannica.com/art/Expressionism
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