Category: Expressionism

The style of expressionism can be considered one of the most emotional and bound to nature. The representatives of this style can be found throughout the world as it had spread widely all over the world; numerous countries can claim that expressionism-influenced buildings can be found on their territory. As the style was widely spread, it is necessary to indicate its main features in order to be able to differentiate between this one and other styles and movements that existed in approximately the same time period in the United States and Europe. The most well-known peculiar features of the expressionism as a style are fantastic shapes and images that develop a single unity with the environment, phantasmagorical pictures and unusual themes can be also attributed to this style in architectures. Thus, this paper is aimed at arguing about the functionality of expressionist buildings despite their fanciful and sometimes bizarre design and construction.

As we cannot indicate the pure features that can be attributed to a single style or movement in architecture as they all have been mutually influenced by each other, it is possible to focus on features that can be attributed to expressionism and related styles and movements. For example, we could include discussion of early modernism as it was influenced by expressionism and architects that used to create buildings in expressionist style became representatives of the modern architectural style. It can be also called the urban style, as it was supposed to serve as the main concept for reconstruction of the post-war Europe, whereas it had to be convenient, simple, and related to the piece habitation.

The style has numerous representatives that can be also discussed within the bounds of other styles and movements as they all are interconnected. The four architects whose projects can be more or less attributed to the expressionism in architecture and its influence on other styles and movements are Erich Mendelsohn, Walter Gropius, Hans Scharoun, and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. As argued by Alan Colquhoun (89), “Expressionism is a permanent and recurrent tendency in modern architecture.” Thus, the tendencies typical of expressionism can be traced in other successive styles and movements in modern architecture.

The value of expressionism in architecture for contemporaries is great as it was aimed at building houses for people after the war seen by Europe. As “… the expressionists were torn between a Utopian view of modern technology and a Romantic nostalgia for the Volk (people or nation)…” (Colquhoun 87), it is clear why the forms of expressionist buildings are full of fantastical influence and the materials are not typical of that architectural era. We can see the unusual and unexpected materials in architectural projects of expressionist style, futurism which existed in Italy in the same period, Modernism which is supposed to be a style following the expressionism. So, some peculiarities established by expressionists were later used by modernists. The expressionism in architecture has influenced the development of contemporary architecture as well as successive movements and styles in architecture and arts.

The first architectural project that should be analysed is the Einstein Tower by Erich Mendelsohn. It can be considered a purely expressionist architectural project as the curvaceous, streamlined forms of the building which served as a laboratory and an observatory of Albert Einstein were made with the help of bearing masonry and concrete over brick. The initial project was supposed to be built out of reinforced concrete which would perform the main function of the skeleton frame of the building and the final version was fulfilled with the help of bricks covered with concrete because of insufficient finance due to the post-war reconstruction and shortage of materials, financial support, and need to build unusual houses.

This building is the genuine representation of the unreal and even fantastic forms which resemble a woman’s figure and cannot be clearly described. The Einstein Tower made Mendelsohn famous as well as his work. The successive projects of the authors influenced by the design and construction of the Mendelsohn’s building were less artificial but did not lack original approach and the inspiration. Though only separate features and details of the expressionism can be traced in the projects of the modern architecture, it is worth mentioning that the idea of creating a functional building which would be convenient inside and recognisable from outside was the predominant one in the projects influenced by expressionism, suchlike modern campuses of the Bauhaus in Dessau by Walter Gropius, the Scharoun Residence by Hans Scharoun, and Barcelona Pavilion by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe.

The next architectural project that seems to bear the features of expressionism is the Bauhaus Building in Dessau created by Walter Gropius. It is natural that this project found its place in the niche of historically remarkable objects of the modern architecture. The Bauhaus Building can be considered the embodiment of energy, original thoughts, and practical application. The main purpose of the building was the art and architecture school with transparent walls and asymmetric construction which was used to divide the working space with the help of light but effective massing. The people acquired a unique opportunity to live and work within the specific building which is aimed at giving as much light for the working process as possible, though it managed to conceal the part of the class in order to hide the students from the outer world. It is natural that the artistic environment predisposes to create and invent. All techniques were used to make the place as convenient and functional as it may be. As a rule, the Modern Movement is considered to be an embodiment of functionality and usefulness.

All the rough materials which were used in the construction were not expected to be concealed. Every detail could be observed and it was aimed at inspiring the students of the school of arts. Walls were painted in unusual colours which were not typical of studios and workshops; this was done in order to emphasize the asymmetry of walls and construction as a whole. The place was another concept which was the basis for the project design as it was chosen not to limit the building in its form and structure. The landscape presupposed that the industrial town should acquire an artistic feature. Though the first impression of people was exciting, the authorities did not happen to support the progressive movement. The innovations introduced by Walter Gropius in his major architectural work the Bauhaus Building in Dessau influenced the major part of the world in terms of architectural movement which rooted from progressive ideas.

The next project that should be discussed with the framework of the expressionism in architecture is the Scharoun Residence by Hans Scharoun which continued the tendency of using modern and unusual materials in the ordinary buildings. However, the case of the Residence turned out to be even closer to the use of special organisation in ordinary buildings to divide parts with different purposes within the building and to preserve its monolithic outer presentation. In the Residence created by Hans Scharoun, the whole house is represented as a single unit, though we as independent observers can claim that there are numerous spaces within the house serving different purposes.

This architectural project can be considered one of the most effective expressionist buildings of the late nineteenth and the early twentieth centuries because it incorporates all distinctive features of expressionism and successfully combines them with modern ones, suchlike the flat roof which is the most spread feature which can be traced even in the architectural projects of the late twentieth century where the postmodern architectural style prevails. The relations between this residence and other architectural objects of the same period and style are obvious as in this case the style progresses with regard to implication of the architectural style which is not typical of ordinary dwellings in the houses of common people.

The last in the list of our discussions is the Barcelona Pavilion by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe which can be considered a successful combination of ascetic forms and modern materials. As visual lightness of the architectural projects is very important for expressionism as well as for its successive style Modernism, the author of the Barcelona Pavilion has contributed greatly to the development of both styles and their influence of other styles and movements in architecture and arts. One of the most distinctive features of this architectural project is the steel frame, while Mendelsohn, as you remember, used the reinforced concrete and bricks – because of insufficient finance – with glass and polished stones.

This project can be dubbed as an embodiment of the modernism influenced by expressionist style. It is clear that the flat roof is the expression of the modernist style in architecture. In this case, we can see the progress of the style; the initial concepts of expressionism were forms and materials, whereas the later projects retain only the material side of the expressionist style in architecture.

The urban style was characterized by combination of simple methods in order to create an overall impression of monolithic building, symmetry and hierarchy were rejected and replaced by original cascades of parts of the same building. The concept consisted in making the building many-sided and multi-purpose; it had to be observed fro different angles because a façade of one part could not persuade an observer in its magnificence. The necessity of developing new forms was not a burning issue of the contemporaries of Erich Mendelsohn and Walter Gropius, though the modern materials which could be not very massive and light, fail-safe and delicate contributed greatly to the development and progress of the expressionist style in architecture and its influence of successive styles and movements.

Thus, the Einstein Tower was one of the first examples of the expressionist style in architecture. It included unusual forms, delicate structure, and modern materials which were very important for developing impressions of monolithic construction. It was aimed at serving as a laboratory and an observatory, while the later projects were created as an educational institution (Bauhaus Building), the residence (by Hans Scharoun), and a project for an exhibition (Barcelona Pavilion). As the purposes of the buildings have been changed, the construction and design were changed as well.

All the techniques and traits that can be traced in the design of the inner and outer space of the Bauhaus Building can be attributed to all architectural projects which are claimed to belong to the Modern Movement in architecture. The flat roof, asymmetric construction, multiple facades made of glass (curtain wall facade which is used in order to make the outer walls non-structural ones) all these and other features can be treated as the mixture of the functional design. As the combination of artificial forms and modern materials was the first representation of the expressionism in architecture, the flat roof and all features that can be attributed to the modernism and other successive styles and movements can be considered the last demonstrations of expressionism in modern architecture.

The influence of the expressionism can be traced in the modern style and in all early architectural projects created by architects of the same architectural school as the authors considered in this paper. The most interesting thing is that the chronological representation of the architectural projects allowed demonstrating the abandoning of one traits and techniques and establishment of others which were more relevant and appropriate for use in successive projects. The incorporation of expressionism into house-building was significant in terms of modern materials which were used to make the constructions lighter and more transparent.

Works Cited

Scharoun, Hans. “Stuttgart-Weissenhof, Germany, house by Hans Scharoun, 1927. International style.” 2001. Web.

Rohe, Ludwig Mies van der. “Barcelona Pavilion, Spain.” 11 november 2008. Online image. Wikipedia. Web.

Mendelsohn, Erich. “Einstein Tower in Potsdam, Germany.” 2003. Online image. Wikipedia. Web.

Gropius, Walter. “Bauhaus Dessau.” 2009. Online image. Wikipedia. Web.

Colquhoun, Alan. Modern Architecture. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002.

Mark Rothko, a Latvian émigré, was a practitioner of Abstract Expressionism. His later work, for example, White Center (Yellow, Pink and Lavender on Rose), was non-representational, avoiding portraying a person, landscaper, or object (Rothko, White Center (Yellow, Pink and Lavender on Rose), 1950). Studying this painting offers an insight into the evolution of modern art styles (Comenas, 2013).

Mark Rothko was born Marcus Rothkowitz, in 1903 ¹. His family immigrated to Portland, Oregon. After a stint at Yale, he moved to New York City and took up the study of art. During the 1930s, he had individual shows, exhibited with a group of like-minded dissenters against representational art², and worked for the WPA (Biography.com, 2013).³ His work then still included recognizable figures and objects, for example in Portrait (Untitled) (Rothko, Portrait (Untitled), 1939)ⁱ. In the 1940s, his paintings displayed vague and suggestive shapes, for example, Multiform (Rothko, Multiform, 1948)ⁱⁱ.

He was intrigued at first by children’s approach of art, and later, by myths, legends, and the philosophical writings of Friedrich Nietzsche. By 1943, he joined the artist Willem de Kooning in a manifesto to “make the spectator see the world our way – not his way” (Biography.com, 2013). These artists called themselves Abstract Expressionists, aiming to express ideas rather depict the world around them (Biography.com, 2013). His signature style, featuring colour blocks floating on large canvases have become so iconic that the work under consideration here – White Center (Yellow, Pink and Lavender on Rose) – sold for a record-breaking sum of 72.8 million US dollars in 2007 (Melikian, 2007).

The style that Rothko is most famously associated with is this Abstract Expressionism, which rejected any form of representation. This continued a decades-long movement away from the Neo-Classical attempt to capture reality in the paint. The second half of the 19^th century witnessed a major break with obsessions over perspective and fabric texture. ⁱⁱⁱ The Impressionists wanted, instead, to capture impressions of light and forms. Today it almost seems an inevitable progression. Monet’s loose brushwork ⁴ in the late 1800s gives way to Cubism’s increasingly non-realism ^5ivv.

Willem de Kooning, Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko then follow in rebelling against academic, conservatory art. ^viviiThey felt that art need not be, and in fact, should not be about anything except, perhaps, ideas that were “tragic and timeless” (Seldes, 1996) ⁶. Rothko may not, himself, have felt comfortable with the term Abstract Expressionism, preferring to use the term Symbolist (Comenas, 2013). The 1950 Rothko’s painting under consideration here consists of loose rectangular areas of vivid colour, laid out in oils on a large canvas.⁷ As a sample of his rejection of portraying anything, or what he would have called “literal painting” (Comenas, 2013), this painting is solidly representative.

Bibliography

Biography.com. (2013).Mark Rothko. Web.

Comenas, G. (2013). Abstract Expressionism. Web.

David, J.-L. The Death of Marat. Musee des Beaux-Arts, Brussels, Belgium. Web.

de Kooning, W. Excavation. Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY, USA. Web.

Girodet–Trioson, A.–L. Madame Jacques–Louis Étienne Reizet (Colette–Désirée–Thérèse Godefro, 1782–1850),. Heilbrunn Timeline of Art. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY, USA. Web.

Leger, F. The Bargeman. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY, USA. Web.

Melikian, S. (2007). A Rothko sells for $72.84 million at record-setting Sotheby’s sale.New York Times. Web.

Monet, C. Garden at Sainte–Adresse. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY , USA. Web.

PBS. (2013). American Masters: Abstract Expressionism. Web.

Pollock, J. Lavender Mist. National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, USA. Web.

Rothko, M. Portrait (Untitled). Collection of Christopher Rothko. Web.

Rothko, M. Multiform. National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, Australia. Web.

Rothko, M. No.5/No.22. Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY, USA. Web.

Rothko, M. White Center (Yellow, Pink and Lavender on Rose). Private collection of the royal family of Qtar, Qtar. Web.

Seldes, L. (1996). The Legacy of Mark Rothko. Cambridge, MA: De Capo Press. Web.

Footnotes

1. Reflecting current events in Europe in the 1940s, Rothkowitz changed his name to Rothko to avoid anti-Semitism.
2. ‘The Ten’ were a group of 1930s artists who created a space for artists who were rejected, or rejected the Whitney Museum, to show their work, called the Mercury Gallery (Comenas, 2013).
3. The WPA, or Works Projects Administration, was a government program during the Great Depression that hired all sorts of people, including creative people, to give them useful work until the crisis was over. (Biography.com, 2013)
4. Visible brushstrokes characterize, for example, his painting Garden at Sainte–Adresse (Monet, 1867)
5. The Cubists are exemplified by Fernand Leger, for example in his painting The Bargeman, where the elements of a machine are separated from one another in a way that is unrecognizable (Leger, 1918).
6. Jackson Pollock splattered and dripped his paint without an immediately obvious pattern (PBS, 2013). Willem de Kooning cut apart the forms he observed into shapes only distantly related to figures or landscapes from the real world. (de Kooning, 1950).
7. This is not like carelessly painting a wall – the brush strokes are clear and seem deliberate rather than awkward.

The 20th century was marked by new artistic movements and tendencies influenced by new social environment and ideas of freedom. Expressionism means a destroyed reality in order to impress viewers and appeal to their imagination and emotions. Expressionism means projection of the echo which experienced reality evokes in our soul. Whether the experience results from outside influences or from an inner vision, the true aim is always the emotional element, the mental excitation, the inner processing of the experience. In expressionists painting, the object itself is preserved, but it is freely transformed to intensify the expression.

German Expressionism began in 1920s with the “Bruecke” group. The main prosecutors were Wolfgang Degenhardt, Reiter, Die Brucke, Max Beckmann, Otto Dix, Lionel Feininger, George Grosz, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, August Macke, Max Pechstein. The uniqueness of this movement was that artists perceive the life force as divided into instinct and intellect where intuition represents the element that unites these two forms of psychic activity (Arnason, 1986).

German Expressionists regard life as a creative process. Motivated by a common desire to find their creative inspiration in life itself and to submit to the experience of life, three young students of architecture — Kirchner, Heckel and Schmidt Rottluff — form the group “Die Bruecke” in Dresden in 1905. Their aims were to depict free expressions and emotions. They depict impressive scenes of streets, cafés and music halls and those profound pictures which are permeated with the poisonous breath of the world and the atmosphere of encounters and adventures. The paintings portraying the mores and morals of pre-war Berlin are the exciting script of a soul fascinated by the temptations of the metropolis, and each stroke of the brush conveys nervous tension and emotional vibration.

The unique features of German Expressionism are bright colors and unique themes such as life of elite and poor classes, luxuriant lives, interiors in the romantic mood, landscapes: the new knowledge and doctrines which revolutionized art so years ago and whose effect is felt to this day, are the source of inspiration for most recent works, richly gradated colors whose consistently mature style has replaced the impetuousness of earlier periods. They concentrated on the arsenal of their own imaginative powers for exotic masks and grotesque figures (Arnason, 1986). The softly-flowing flower and landscape watercolors introduced a new technique that was soon adopted by other artists.

They depict the world as in sharply realistic manner of representation which shows the world as an arena of infernal madness and crime, where human fate is equivalent to human guilt. Most paintings depict the violence of his big-city paintings, the inexorable harshness, bare of atmosphere, with which things and people clash in the nightmare pictures of this historical period. Such a judgment overlooks the compassion, the stubborn indignation with which the painter flings himself into the perils of human existence so that he may grasp life in all its depth (Arnason, 1986).

The main sub-movements were associated with certain art groups in Germany. They involved the Workers Council for Art and the Novembergruppe. No longer is the character of a work determined by the distant spacing of complementary colors so typical of the early period; closely joining tones spread a gentle shine over the objects (Arnason, 1986). The restrained, actually achromatic coloration consisting mostly of subdued greens and browns, is in harmony with his dreamy, idyllic themes.

A pastel-like effect is created by the addition of soft yellows, blues and pinks. Great delicacy is achieved by the application of a light coating of distemper which serves to blunt the harshness of the coarse-grained sacking on which the pictures are painted. Realist painting has here been briefly paraphrased as constituting a naturalistic projection of outward reality. Out of multi-colored particles arises a picturesque world. There is no fusing of houses, mountains, water and the ether, as in instantaneous plain-air painting; in the loose and fibrous pattern of the colors, there swings the fluttering heartbeat of the human soul which beholds the deep abyss that is life and in unceasing struggle must re-conquer anew each day its faith in the existence of a higher order of things (Chipp and Selz 1984).

Similar to expressionists, fauvists (H. Matisse, A. Derain) use strong colors and underline abstract nature of art. Thus, in contrast to expressionism they use wild brushes and stronger colors. While expressionism concentrates on delicate nature of the object, almost without substance, radiating an inner brilliance (Chipp and Selz 1984). The painter’s homage to a world that offered nature’s virile forms to the youth, made the mature man’s eye tremble with joy at the sight of its colorful splendor, and permitted the soul of the aging artist insight into the inner being of things. Fauvists use wild techniques and care little about method and style.

They liberate the essence of the object from the burden of bodily substance. Veins and nerves and the emotions and impulses intrinsic to them seem to have been painted too and brought to the surface. The seemingly accentuated and exaggerated expression serves to lay bare the sitter’s characteristic qualities and the inner tension of the moment. Both of the movements heightened the power of experience and expression in their paintings by an intensification of the basic elements of painting.

Bibliography

1. Arnason, H. 1986, History of Modern Art. Prentice Hall College Div; 3rd Rev Up edition.
2. Chipp, H. B., Selz, P. 1984, Theories of Modern Art University of California Press.

Abstract expressionism is an American art movement that emerged after World War II. With the increasing acceptance by critics and the general public, the term, abstract expressionism, has met with increasing opposition from the artists involved. They object to the association of the word “abstract” with the art of pure formal relationships. They object to the association of the word “expressionist” with a subject matter of social protest. Above all, they object to a single all-encompassing label for a painting whose essence is the expression of the individual, for painters as different as Pollock and Rothko, or de Kooning and Gottlieb (Amason and Kalb 55, 58).

Abstract expressionism is defined as an art movement that empathizes and portrays subconscious and automatic reflections caused by emotional intensity and self-denial. A direct source of inspiration came from the European Surrealists who took refuge in the USA during the Second World War. The most important in this context was Matta. The main techniques of abstract expressionism were used with an explorer’s spirit and with new demands for functional use of images (Amason and Kalb 558). Its dramatic potentialities were exploited and the masses of black and white made to clash in rhythms. Some abstract impressionism features represented a mixture of the old principles which had initiated the era of modern art. The immediacy of handling, spontaneity of vision, a new decorative attraction was the main priority.

Abstract immersionism rendered natural forms and represented a spontaneous abstraction of the details in nature influenced in their shape and direction by the inner tensions of the design. Many artists were well aware of the danger of schematization, but they supposed that it would help them to create a new and warm response to the unconscious. This very feature was felt throughout abstract works as a most natural outcome of his sensitive and excitable temperament. Abstract impressionism is perceived as merely a broad (and inaccurate) label for certain exciting experiments which were carried on by widely different painters in the United States. Many paintings remind Picasso and cubism but abstract impressionists maintained a strong unity by color relationships and by the manipulation of lines. The artist once described how he reached a greater power of expression by disregarding light and shade. A type of abstract art, particularly sculpture, characterized by extreme simplicity of form and a deliberate lack of expressive content; it emerged as a trend in the late 1950s and flourished particularly in the 1960s and 1970s. Their activities included releasing small quantities of inert gases into the atmosphere and taking photographs of their dispersal (which is completely invisible (Amason and Kalb 560).

Minimalism was a movement in American art, originating in New York in the mid-1970s, in which painters and other artists produced works that consist essentially of complex and generally brightly colored patterns (abstract, figurative, or a mixture of both). The movement was one aspect of the reaction against the stark impersonality of minimal art and also represented a defense of the idea that decorative art is a humanizing influence and should not be regarded as inferior to ‘fine’ art. Many of the artists involved in the movement were women, influenced by the feminist concern with highly decorative crafts such as quilt making that have traditionally been the preserve of women (Amason and Kalb 484). They included Valerie Jaudon (1945), whose work is influenced by Celtic patterns, Joyce ^*Kozloff, and Miriam ^*Schapiro. The New York Pattern and Decoration Group first met in 1975 and organized an exhibition the following year. Many of the members were taken up by the dealer Holly Solomon, who had recently established a gallery in New York, and their work enjoyed considerable success in the later 1970s. Such documentation takes varied forms, including photographs, sound and video cassettes, texts, maps, diagrams, and sets of instructions, but some Conceptual works do not have any physicality at all (Chipp 570).

It is possible to say that minimalism evolves out of abstract impressionism reflecting its main features and borrowing its techniques. Minimal art developed mainly in the USA rather than Europe and its impersonality is seen as a reaction against the emotionalism of Abstract Expressionism. Leading sculptors of the movement include Carl Andre, Don Judd, and Tony Smith; leading painters (for whom the immediate precedents were Albers and Reinhardt) include Frank Stella (in his early work), and Hard-Edge abstractionists such as Ellsworth Kelly and Kenneth. Often industrial materials arranged in geometrical or highly simplified configurations we may experience all the more strongly the pure qualities of color, form, space, and materials (Chipp 571). Minimal art has close links with Conceptual art Minimalist sculpture often has a strong element of theoretical demonstration about it, with the artist leaving the fabrication of the design to industrial specialists, Like Pop art, Minimal art proved a commercial success for many of its leading practitioners, and it generated a huge amount of critical commentary; sometimes it seemed that the less there was to see in a work, the more verbiage it attracted.

Works Cited

Amason, H.H., Kalb, P. History of Modern Art: Painting Sculpture Architecture Photography. Prentice Hall; 4 edition, 1997.

Chipp, H. B. Theories of Modern Art A Source Book by Artists and Critics (California Studies in the History of Art). University of California Press, 1984.

Expressionism is a movement which commenced approximately in 1910, and is believed to be the basis of all the modern art. Although as a movement, Expressionism lasted for only a decade, up to 1920, it has been accredited with the explosion of all the innovative ideas of the mid-twentieth century, and the concepts introduced by the movement persist in the foundation of all of the modern art movements.

Expressionism was distinct in its approach in the rejection of the natural forms of the outer world and focuses more on the inner experiences of the human society, which is devoid of any form, shape and artistic approach. Thus, expressionism has been instrumental in the illumination of a completely novel self-exploratory sphere, not only for the artist but for the audience as well, and has substantial influence over the modern art forms.

In trying to investigate how “Expressionism intended to be subversive” but was “later systematically integrated as ‘high art’”, the researcher seeks to examine how this single art movement which lasted only for a short span of ten years, had such a profound and long lasting effect upon the art and artists of the remainder of the century. In the paper, the researcher also aims to review how a single approach to art can have such wide-ranging consequences in spite of the fact that the Expressionists were highly influenced by the preceding artists.

The researcher aims to study the fundamental shifts in Expressionism as a new movement rather than a continuation of the preceding Post-Impressionistic movement. Finally, by seeking answers to all the above questions, the researcher intends to explain the historical factors instrumental in the evolution of Expressionism as a distinct art movement and its crucial role in influencing the subsequent generations of artists.

While the fundamental philosophy of the Post-Impressionists primarily focused upon an external source of emotional response, ‘the landscape’, they introduced the idea of visual emotion in their works, which was a departure from strict Impressionism. The Expressionists were influenced by this development of emotional expression in painting, taking this idea, a step further. The impressionists explored the emotions occurring within the individual, but abandoned the idea of the traditional forms and symbols.

Since the old approach of the world was breaking down in the face of the modern inventions, the symbols and forms which were once easily recognized were becoming blurred with the clash between the rural and industrial cultures.

This resulted in the philosophy of art embracing an internal character and reintroducing the concept of personal spirituality of art form as the sole purpose of being. While there are different views and approaches regarding the best means of illustration of ideas in the works of art, the fundamental principle of spirituality links them. In addition, there were fundamental differences in the worldviews of the first generation and the second generation of Expressionist artists, which resulted in the evolution of major art schools emerging from Expressionism. Thus the prime aim of the researcher is the illustration of techniques, modes of interpretation, etc, which can all be traced back to the basic philosophical principles introduced as a fundamental point of division between the Post-Impressionists and Expressionists.

The researcher aims to elucidate the crucial aspects by emphasizing the works of Wassily Kandinsky, who is highly regarded as the founder of abstract art. In his book, Concerning the Spiritual in Art, Kandinsky attempts to illuminate the specific philosophies involved in the creation and forms of the peculiar approach of expressionism.

The book, as a primary source is helpful in ascertaining the distinction between the philosophies of Expressionism and Post-Impressionism, while the secondary sources are crucial in understanding the detailed characteristics of the various art movements. For instance, in Dietmar Elger’s Expressionism: A Revolution in German Art, the author discusses the technical innovations and changes in modes of expression, comparing some German Expressionists categorized in groups such as the Brücke and the Blaue Reiter. L.D. Ettlinger’s article, “German Expressionism and Primitive Art”, explicates the particular development and advance of primitive art within the movement. The resources are crucial in enabling a general perception of how the movement influenced and changed the concepts of art in the modern world.

However, in reviewing the available literature on the subject, the researcher discovers that there is dearth of substantial research regarding the evolution of the artistic movements of the modern period of art. There is also insufficient information regarding the reasons and the manner in which the movement of Expressionism became prominent, which are vital in comprehending the changes taking place during this time.

Some literary documents attempt to draw out the contrast of the characteristics between Expressionism and the various modern art movements, such as Surrealism, Abstraction Expressionism, and Symbolism. However, most of the authors attempt to illuminate the achievements of modern artists, emphasizing the sophisticated art styles and philosophies which are distinct from Expressionist arts. For instance, Randolph Schwabe’s article ‘Expressionism’, contrasts Cubism and Expressionism stating that the former “is granted the merits of a variant of the true movement, which would attain the Expressionist goal by a more absolute intellectuality” (Schwabe 141).

Thus, while there is great deal of literature available which attempts to explain the meaning of the term ‘Expressionism’ and how it differs from other art movements, there is not enough literature regarding the importance of Expressionism in art history. This research attempts to provide a concise understanding of the importance of the Expressionist movement to art as we understand it today.

In exploring how Expressionism differed from the Post-Impressionists and from the art movements that emerged in the mid-1900s, it becomes clear that a fundamental shift in the concept of art had taken place, which was primarily introduced during the Expressionist period. However, this shift does not imply that the Expressionists attributed the shift in artistic concepts and some worshippers of the modern high art oppose the claim to be a mere coincidence.

By investigating the basic philosophies of the Post-Impressionists and their influences upon future Expressionist artists, the researcher detects a significant shift in the foundational concepts of art as well as in modes of expression for those ideas, subsequently indicating the disintegration process of the world. An analysis of future art movements has the potential to reveal the fundamental similarities to Expressionist ideas contained in each of them. Through this progression, it can be effectively proved that, the period of Expressionism, in spite of lasting a short while, played a crucial role in introducing a significant shift in the comprehension of art, in response to world changes which continue to form the foundation of subsequent movements.

Bibliography

Elger, Dietmar. Expressionism: A Revolution in German Art. Ed. Ingo F. Walther. Trans. Hugh Beyer. Frankfurt: Taschen, 2002: 7-15.

Ettlinger, L.D. “German Expressionism and Primitive Art.” The Burlington Magazine. Vol.110, N.781, (1968): 191-201.

Kandinsky, Wassily. Concerning the Spiritual in Art. Trans. M.T.H. Sadler. Dover Publications, 1977.

Lloyd, Jill. “German Expressionism. Venice.” The Burlington Magazine. Vol. 139, N.1137, (1997): 899-900.

Schwabe, Randolph. “Expressionism.” The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs. Vol. 33, N.187, (1918): 140-141.

Wechsler, Jeffrey. “Magic Realism: Defining the Indefinite.” Art Journal. Vol.45, N.4, The Visionary Impulse: An American Tendency, (1985): 293-298.

Introduction

It is a known feature of human existence that we continue to learn from the lessons of the past, if only to repeat their same mistakes. This is as true in the art world as it is true in other facets of life. However, art historians typically recognize a radical shift in the underlying philosophical approach to art occurring around the turn of the twentieth century that surpasses the changes that swept the art world following the great Renaissance of the 1400s-1600s.

Although the Renaissance brought tremendous change in artistic approaches based upon the traditional art of Greek and Roman statuary, the Expressionist movement introduced a profound rejection of all traditional ways of the past and a completely new approach to the ideas of art and its role in human life. Through their work and artistic conception, the Expressionists introduced a darker side to art as it turned inward and began exploring the mysteries of inner human experience and the sometimes-frightening shapes this could engender.

Although building off of the emotional concepts of the Impressionists and Post-Impressionists that immediately preceded them, the Expressionists were credited with the explosion of ideas that characterized the middle period of the 20^th century and continue to influence the art world today. This is in spite of the fact that, as a movement, the Expressionists only existed for a decade, from 1910 to 1920.

By rejecting the forms of the natural, outer world and focusing on the inner world of the human experience free of rigidly defined form, shape and artistic approach, the Expressionists opened up an entirely new realm of self-exploration for both the artist and the audience that continues to influence our understanding of art today. Earlier artistic movements began to explore emotional expression within their work as it was felt in response to exterior influences. However, it was the Expressionists who changed the art world forever by exploring ways in which the workings of the human mind itself might be explored in its process of individuation and incorporation with greater society.

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It is undeniable that the art of Expressionism owes a great deal of its inspiration to the ideas of the Post-Impressionists, yet there remains a fundamental difference in these two approaches. Writing in 1918 regarding the differences between the two periods, Schwabe defines the attitude of Impressionism as “one of passivity before nature, of which attitude van Gogh, through all his febrile intensity, is found to be the final and highest development” while “Expressionism may be defined as the concentrated presentation of emotion sought for within the artist’s consciousness – an insistence on feeling rather than on the visualization and reproduction of the external world” (Schwabe 140).

While the Impressionist painters did not focus all of their attention on the scenes of nature alone, the primary focus of their art was in capturing the emotional impressions of the moment as it is externally presented to the artist/viewer. In doing this, the Impressionist artists managed to realize, at about the same time that photography was proving them correct, that we don’t see every detail in the scenes that confront us, but instead manage to get an impression of the view through the basic shapes, colors and play of light that catch at the edge of our vision as they are informed by the few elements we may happen to focus upon (Gombrich 524-528). The Post-Impressionists took this one step further and added personal visual emotional reaction to their art.

Artists such as Vincent van Gogh and Edvard Munch deliberately exaggerated the types of Impressionistic distortions evidenced in the paintings of artists such as Monet in order to highlight their emotional reactions to the subject matter being depicted. Van Gogh utilized heavy impasto in his paintings to give the paint itself a means of expressing these emotional reactions while he deliberately exaggerated color contrasts to further highlight the emotional content.

Munch also exaggerated elements of his paintings, such as the distortions seen in the head and landscape lines of “The Scream” as a means of focusing upon the emotional impact of the moment being depicted rather than the actual visual scene. “The Expressionists did allow themselves to be influenced quite considerably by the works of Vincent van Gogh, Paul Gauguin, Robert Delauney, James Ensor and Edvard Munch” (Elger & Beyer 10). From these Post-Impressionist painters, the Expressionists would take their experimental colors and their attempt at depicting the psychological impact of the event, but would change the focus from an external reaction to the internal experience.

In attempting to refocus the attention of art from the external world of impressions to the internal world of experience, Expressionism also represented a fundamental shift in artistic direction in turning its back on the natural forms of nature as a necessary means of expression. Part of this shift in focus was probably brought on by the significant changes that continued to occur during this time period.

Although the Industrial Revolution, which impacted the entire world, had its beginnings in the mid-1800s, the changes it brought about were sometimes slow to be fully realized in the art world. As Burchill (1966) points out, it was during this period in history that the harnessing of electricity made communication across long distances possible through the telegraph, long hours possible through the safe and inexpensive provision of light after dark and new machines available for many different purposes. This invention alone introduced an entirely new way of living life that could be fully divorced from the natural world of the past.

Darwin’s Theory of Evolution had forced a reconsideration of man’s place in the universe and upset centuries-old religious beliefs. The properties of the atom were also being discovered during this time. “The impact of these discoveries lay a quarter of a century in the future, but all the foundations of twentieth century science and technology were laid in the Age of Progress” (Burchill 38).

Germany was at the forefront of this wave of progress, leading the world in technology and innovation by 1900. Spirits were also brought to an all-time high through the invention of synthetic dyes, which made it possible for the world to experience vivid color for the first time ever, introducing a tremendous psychological burst of emotional energy to feed the Post-Impressionists and the optimism of the early Expressionists.

Perhaps most important of the new inventions coming out of the mid- to late-nineteenth century was the shift that was taking place in mankind’s capacity to think. Rather than basing all of our knowledge upon myth and superstition, mankind was learning to apply systematic thought processes to explanations regarding the natural world and his role within it. This naturally led to artists of all kinds reassessing what they ‘knew’ about representing the ‘real’ world.

As Gombrich explains, artists were being asked to “sit down before nature and paint it to the best of his abilities” (561). However, artists since the beginning of time have had difficulty defining just what it is that they ‘see’ as opposed to what they ‘know’. These ideas are only made more concrete with the increasing knowledge of psychology and science. “It happens that we make mistakes in seeing … as soon as we start to take a pencil and draw, the whole idea of surrendering passively to what is called our sense impressions becomes really an absurdity. If we look out of the window we can see the view in the thousand different ways” (Gombrich 562).

Previous generations had already attempted to capture what was ‘seen’ through representation in primitive art and through scientific approximation in Renaissance art. Impressionism had attempted to capture what was felt and none of these was felt to have captured the desired effect of denoting the ‘essence’ of the moment. In attempting to find a new means of expressing this essence, suggesting it to a greater degree or highlighting the probability that there is something inexpressible beyond the shadings of the painting, Expressionists sought freedom from the rigidly defined traditional symbols of the classic art schools and searched for new means of expression through primitive or highly mechanistic forms.

In light of the tremendous changes in lifestyle that had taken place within the space of a single generation, the Expressionist artists had to recognize that the traditional concepts and universal ideas of the past were breaking down and losing their meanings. Kandinsky, for example, in his presentation of his own artistic theories, outlines his feelings of disgust for the absence of spirit in traditional art.

In illustrating the necessity for art to continue to evolve, always developing new ways of speaking of the true concerns of the day, Kandinsky also illustrates how art that becomes closer to the truth of human nature also becomes more and more abstract in its expression. However, this is a necessary progression in Kandinsky’s approach as “every man who steeps himself in the spiritual possibilities of this art is a valuable helper in the building of the spiritual pyramid which will some day reach to heaven” (Kandinsky 22).

Thus, Kandinsky is calling for a return to the spiritual and the sublime in art as a means of recapturing the sense of religion that had been lost in the focus on science and technology that inundated his age. In order to provide art with this sublime element, Kandinsky indicates painting should be a response to the artist’s inner need rather than an attempt to fulfill the audience’s desires or to remain in vogue with contemporary forms. By drawing what was on the surface, rather than attempting to capture the inner nature of the object, allowing the artist’s inner spirit to guide the brushes, Kandinsky says that the audience is able to gain their own appreciation of the spirit of the subject as it was expressed and experienced by the artist, forcing the suggestion of the sublime to enter into consideration.

In keeping with these ideas, Ettlinger points out how some of the Expressionist artists, such as Picasso, turned to primitive art as a means of attempting to find the most basic and universal expressions of the spiritual nature of the universe. While the immediate predecessors of Expressionism had already been involved in including the observed nature of primitive art in their works, it was the Expressionists who adopted the ideas themselves and applied them to their own experience.

Picasso, for example, brought the concepts of primitive ‘negro sculpture’ into his work as a means of illustrating the manifestation of his vision upon his senses (Ettlinger 192). While several artists, including Kirchner, would attempt to bring primitive art into their work as a means of capturing a sublime and fully instinctual element, it was discovered that there did not seem to be any truly universal symbols beyond the very basic geometric shapes of triangle, square and circle, thus leading to the more elemental and minimalist approaches taken by later artists.

This abstraction of images was seen by Mondrian as being the only means by which an artist could free himself from the external sufficiently to express the more important internal understanding of the artist: “That which distinguishes him (the non-figurative artist) from the figurative is the fact that in his creations he frees himself from particular impressions which he receives from outside and he breaks loose from the domination of the individual inclination within him” (Mondrian, 1964 cited in Levine 22). However, eventually even this was recognized to be untrue.

Even before the onset of World War I and the horrors this experience would unleash in the minds of the artists, there was evidence of schism within the ranks of the Expressionists. Schwabe (1918), writing from within the time period of the movement, characterizes this deep split in the movement by placing Kandinsky and Pechstein at opposite poles from each other. In defining Kandinsky’s approach, Schwabe says “Kandinsky pursues what may be called the intensive method, an effort at expression detached from all relation to natural forms” (141).

This is contrasted against the work of Pechstein who uses nature as a basis for the more mechanical forms of the art produced. Thus, while Pechstein can be seen to be fostering an approach along the lines of the geometric cubists and the mechanical artists of the future, a direction also followed by Mondrian, Kandinsky begins to bridge the difference between Western artistic approaches and the more spiritually minimalist approaches of Japanese philosophies. A great deal of these differences, both before and after the war, were shaped by the socio-political climate then brewing in the state of Germany as the country relatively quickly entered into war.

Spirits in Germany were relatively high during the initial years of the century. Germany was doing well as an international power and its leaders were becoming eager to go to war with Russia (Roberts 238). However, “the nation remained divided into its various groups and castes, separated one from the other by the most rigid and stiff lines of demarcation and social discrimination” (Kurtz 71).

As a result, there were several minority movements that opposed the status quo and began establishing their own centers of intellectual training. The confusion all this prosperity and poverty, education of the state and education of the populace and art of tradition and art of impression all combined to contribute to the Expressionist ideas of formless spirituality, shapeless emotion and non-symbolic expression. “The war, which was welcomed with nationalist enthusiasm in the whole of Germany, was regarded by the Expressionists as a powerful catharsis. They believed that it would destroy the ancient order, which they had felt to be so oppressive, and that a better society would arise from its ruins” (Elger & Beyer 15).

When Germany acted seemingly on a whim to declare war on two fronts, and then the war began to drag on, the spirit of Germany’s people, and the artists who had brought mindfulness and spirituality into their work, began to be affected as well. “The longer the trench war dragged on, the more there was a change of attitude among the other artists, too: Dix’s paintings changed into an accusation of militarism and the bourgeoisie.

Kirchner, Beckmann and Kokoschka could not bear the horrors of trench warfare; but had physical and psychological breakdowns and were discharged. Many other Expressionists – Marc, Macke, Morgner – died in action at an early age” (Elger & Beyer 15). Following the Great War, the Expressionist movement began to splinter into numerous factions, each exploring the concepts of mindfulness, spirituality and transcendent expression that had been introduced as a unique feature of Expressionism.

Tracing the various art movements that emerged following World War I, Elger and Beyer point out that “Wassily Kandinsky was probably the most radical example because his Expressionism just before 1914 led to abstract art in a series of consistent steps.

On the other hand, there was Walter Gropius’s Bauhaus manifesto, which started off a school of art that was unparalleled in its demand for functionality and clarity of form, while at the same time still totally permeated by an Expressionist language” (Elger & Beyer 7). From Kandinsky’s work, we continue to have a collection of artists who choose to explore their expressive qualities through abstract shapes, randomly placed paint splatters or other intriguing means of application and seemingly un-artistic approaches such as that of the Young British Artists in their hyper-realistic sculptures and images.

The early stages of the Bauhaus can also be found in the reduction of forms to their most basic shapes, stripping away the unnecessary and attempting to discover the spiritual center. From the Bauhaus can be traced many of the forms of the modern world, including the now-traditional rectangular form of the urban skyscraper and the minimalist forms of the ‘traditional’ classroom tubular chair.

Also attempting to trace through the spiritual elements of the Expressionist movement, other splinter groups followed still other scientific advancement. For example, the ideas of Sigmund Freud, which are now relatively widely known, combined with the spiritual goals of Expressionism to give rise to Surrealism and its expression of the inner dream-state of the artist. Freud’s ideas include the subdivisions of the human mind into the subconscious and the conscious (Downs 20).

Within this distinction, Freud says the true, natural inner nature of the man can only be found within the much larger and mostly secret labyrinth of the subconscious mind. While this subconscious mind cannot be directly accessed by the conscious mind, hints and suggestions from it can be received through dream imagery. This has helped to give rise to fantasy art and to the animated films that have entertained the world’s children for the past two generations through their ability to transcend reality and enter an entirely different ‘magical’ plane. Artists practicing trompe l’oeil are also the descendents of these Expressionists as they demonstrate through their art the degree to which the human eye can be fooled into mistaking obvious illusion for reality.

Conclusion

In tracing the foundational concepts of contemporary artistic movements, it can be seen that today’s artists continue to attempt the basic goals of the Expressionists as they differentiated from the Impressionists before them. The Impressionist painters of a generation before focused their attention on illustrating the tricks of the eye, the play of light and the impressions of the moment, breaking ground in numerous important areas as they explored the fallacy of ‘painting what they saw’ and began to incorporate expressions of emotion within their work.

However, the Expressionists introduced an entirely new concept to the idea of painting in introducing the focus on inner spirituality as expressed from within rather than being imposed from without. Even in the early days of the movement, there were different ideas of how to best bring this expression into physical form, but the interruption of World War I into its development created a deep split between the two major approaches.

Following the war, the basic concepts of Expressionism continued to be explored through these various approaches, giving rise to movements such as Surrealism, Abstraction and Minimalism. Expressionism can be considered the founder of all modern art because it was this movement in particular that introduced the concepts that continue to remain the foundation of all modern art movements today.

Works Cited

Burchell, S.C. “The Blessings of Science.” Age of Progress. Great Ages of Man: A History of the World’s Cultures. New York: Time-Life Books, 1966: 28-47.

Downs, Robert B. “Sigmund Freud Publishes The Interpretation of Dreams: 1900.” 1900-1920: The Twentieth Century. Zacharias, Gary (ed.). Events that Changed the World series. Farmington Hills, MI: Greenhaven Press, 2004: 18-26.

Elger, Dietmar & Hugh Beyer. Expressionism: A Revolution in German Art. Frankfurt: Taschen, 2002: 7-15.

Ettlinger, L.D. “German Expressionism and Primitive Art.” The Burlington Magazine. Vol. 110, N. 781, (1968): 191-201.

Gombrich, E.H. “Experimental Art.” The Story of Art. London: Phaidon, 1995: 557-598.

Kandinsky, Wassily. Concerning the Spiritual in Art. MTH Sadler (Trans.). Dover Publications, 1977.

Kurtz, Harold. “The Summit of the German Volcano.” The Second Reich: Kaiser Wilhelm II and his Germany. New York: American Heritage Press, 1970: 63-84.

Levine, Edward M. “Abstract Expressionism: The Mystical Experience.” Art Journal. Vol. 31, N. 1, (1971): 22-25.

Roberts, J.M. “The Great War and the Beginning of the Twentieth Century Revolution.” Twentieth Century: The History of the World, 1901 to 2000. New York: Viking, 1999: 238-270.

Schwabe, Randolph. “Expressionism.” The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs. Vol. 33, N. 187, (1918): 140-141.

Expressionism has been viewed as one of the greatest puzzles of its epoch for quite long. It has once again posed a timeless question of the meaning of art, seemingly containing an immediate answer to it. However, considering Expressionist art solely from the ars gratia artis perspective would be unfair to the numerous artistic influences that the given movement owes its identity to. Apart from the concept of self-expression, which clearly makes the bulk of the given artistic phenomenon, expressionism also lends some of its features to the concept of feminism (Nochlin 2). Indeed, according to what Carolyn Korsmeyer’s major work, Gender and Aesthetics, says, the people who are located “outside the mandate of patriarchal society” (Korsmeyer 142) are especially inclined to demanding “their own expression” (Korsmeyer 142).

Seeing how such people are traditionally ostracized in the realm of political, economical and social life, the field of art remains the only refuge for such people. The given way to look at expressionist art both broadens the definition and narrows it down in that it stretches the concept to the idea of art being used as a tool for creating the basis for equal rights – and deprives an artist of an opportunity to express anything else. Instead, the concept of expressionism seems to be more than an attempt of an artist to draw the line between his/her own world vision and the one of his/her audience.

Another possible means to define the phenomenon of expressionism, weirdly enough, come from the same source as the one that was mentioned early, yet offer an entirely different way to look at art in general and Expressionism in particular. Instead of trying to tie in the concepts of self-expression, fighting for rights, and social isolation, the given definition touches upon the phenomenon of art in general. By making people ponder over what the origins of art are per se, the given definition allows spotting the point at which the idea of Expressionist art form was born. Thus, a more exact definition based on the reasons for the given art movement to be created appears:

Definitions based upon these approaches are attempts to delineate the features of genuine art from other things that may be similar, such as entertainment, but which lack some pertinent defining features, features that also separate artistic excellence from mediocrity. (Korsmeyer 112)

Glorifying the phenomenon of pure art as opposed to “artistic mediocrity” (Korsmeyer 112), the given attempt at defining Expressionism might seem somewhat unfocused. While it is hard to argue that the adepts of the given artistic movement consider self-expression their top priority, considering the rest of artistic styles les genuine simply because of a difference in their focus will be quite a stretch. Therefore, Korsmeyer’s idea of incorporating the psychology of an individual and the society vs. individual conflict into the definition of the given artistic movement only represents one side of the phenomenon.

Addressing the fact that Expressionism was, in fact, aimed at offering the audience a chance to catch a glimpse of an artist’s unique vision of reality, one must note that the very concept of the movement aligns with the key postulates of the expression theory. Created and expanded by a number of prominent psychologists and other researchers, including Sigmund Freud, the given theory allows envisioning art as expression in a much wider context. Freeland makes her readers see art as an expression of the subconscious in accordance with the key postulates of the Feudist theory (Freeland 157), she addresses the ideas of Francis Bacon by interpreting art as a means to communicate emotions (Freeland 154), she connects the idea of Expressionism with the principles of the cognitive theory, recalling the key ideas communicated be Dewey (Freeland 88) – the ideas that the author lists are too many to count.

What every single theory listed above seems to agree on, however, is that art, primarily Expressionism, is the means to get the artist’s vision of the world across. The given definition definitely rubs elbows with the one provided by Korsmeyer; while Freeland defines art as the means of projecting one’s personal convictions and ideas onto material in order to create an artwork, Freeland goes further and limits the number of Expressionist artists to those who are considered marginalized and whose works do not fit into the traditional definition of a standard.

Therefore, from what Freeland offers to consider, Expressionism can be defined as an instrument that allows an artist to convey particular ideas to his/her audience, both on a conscious and a subconscious level. In many ways, the given definition aligns with the one provided by Dewey, who claimed that “Art is a source of knowledge” (Freeland 167). Art is, indeed, a source of knowledge about the artist’s personality, his/her own unique world and the numerous ideas that the author has developed over decades about the society and his/her place in it.

Some definitions of Expressionism, however, see the given movement as not the means to green-light any means of artistic expression as an opportunity for an artist to explore his/her own world of the subconscious. Quite on the contrary, some of the existing definitions suggest that the concept of Expressionism has killed the very possibility of self-expression in art. Mallarme, for instance, specified that “the hand, cut off from any voice, borne by a pure gesture of inscription (and not of expression), traces a field without origin—or which, at least, has no other origin than language itself, language which ceaselessly calls into question all origins” (Barthes 2).

Thus, the art movement in question cannot be defined as expression for the sake of expression, either. There seems to be more to the movement of Expressionism than an attempt to wash the phenomenon down to “the polar opposites of classical ‘imitation’ and romantic expression” (Wimsatt and Beardsley 468). Therefore, it can be concluded that Expressionism should be defined based on the theory of the subconscious as the manifestation of an artist’s subliminal ideas, provided by Freud in Freeland’s paper.

Though not embracing every single aspect of Expressionism as art form, it gives an idea about the given type of art and outlines its key distinctive feature. Despite its age, the idea of expressing one’s deepest fears or strongest convictions through art is rather valid, seeing how art is nearly the only field where the author can create his/her own rules and create really unique artworks. One of the greatest mysteries of its time, Expressionism has left a lot of questions for the XXI century artists and spectators; however, it has also provided future artists with inspiration and room for thoughts.

Works Cited

Barlach, Ernst. The Avenger 64. 1992. Web.

Barthes, Roland, n. d., The Death of the Author. Web.

Freeland, Cyntia. But Is It Art? An Introduction to Art Theory, New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2001. Print.

Korsmeyer, Carolyn. Gender and Aesthetics: An Introduction, New York, NY: Routledge, 2004. Print.

Munch, Edward. The Scream. 1983. Web.

Nochlin, Linda, n. d., Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists? Web.

Van Gogh, Vincent. Starry Night. 1889. Web.

Wimsatt, Willam K., and Monroe C. Beardsley. “The Intentional Fallacy.” The Sewanee Review 54.3 (1946): 468-488. Print.

The paper contains a raft of expressions by 19^th and early 20th-century artists whereby they conveyed what was in their hearts rather than the reality of their art. On that note, expressionism is conveyed through intense feelings through the works done by paintings or sculptures. That period was characterized by treasuring of emotionalism in artworks, such as the romanticism period, which was characterized by drawings that represented the intimate aspects of human beings (Arnason & Mansfield, 2012). The spread of secularism widely in the regions of Germany and Austria.

Several artworks in the chapter help the reader understand the extent to which artists would convey emotions. For example, The Lion Hunt by Delacroix shows the violence and robustness in society as depicted in the art (Arnason & Mansfield, 2012). Additionally, Munch’s The Scream reveals expressionism as the artist conveys the theme of desperation and alienation in society. Also, fierce expressionism was popular due to the representation of women’s sexuality, such as Nude Girl by Lovis Corinth in 1886, as shown in Figure 1 (Arnason & Mansfield, 2012). Thus, through the chapter, a reader can gain knowledge and interpretation of expressionism in arts.

There was a revolution in art in the early 20^th century, where young painters took a new turn in art. Painting groups creation of what was known as Die Brucke or ‘The Bridge’ association that was used to link all fermenting elements in art (Arnason & Mansfield, 2012). Some of the painters in the association, such as Ludwing Kirchner, articulated other essentials of expressionism, such as empathy and the change of the new world. As shown in Figure 2 below, Kirchner drew Girl Franzi, who later became a model in the Brucke group.

In Germany and Austria, artists then began to make sculptures that showed the industrial revolution in the world and the spiritual culture that was practiced by communities. For example, Vasily Kandinsky drew Composition VII, which portrayed the boats in seemingly stormy waters, thus, representing biblical flood as shown in Figure 3 below (Arnason & Mansfield, 2012). The style started spreading widely, giving religion a chance to be embodied in art. Other artists, such as Gabriele Munter, started doing paintings that gave an element of modern relationships in the world. Also, as Figure 4 shows, August Macke drew the Great Zoological Garden, which displays the transformation from the ancient world to modern society (Arnason & Mansfield, 2012). The art reveals the world’s interconnection through the environment and the social segmentation that is visible in many parts of the world.

Sculptures translated various elements into the world, mostly during the romanticism period. For example, the Kneeling Woman by Wilhelm Lehmbruck in 1911 expresses women’s melancholy and loss when they face struggles in relationships with men (Arnason & Mansfield, 2012). The sculpture revealed the trauma and sadness that Lehmbruck had gone through during World War I, which eventually led him to commit suicide. Self-examination was also a broad theme in Austria, as shown in Portrait of Paris von Guterslah, drawn by Egon Schiele in the 1890s (Arnason & Mansfield, 2012). The art shows a disgruntled man who appears to be harmful, an expression of inhumanity that the society had, more so to people who had no power or knowledge over issues. From chapter 6, the reader understands artwork was characterized by transitional values in both Germany and Austria.

Reference

Arnason, H., & Mansfield, E. (2012). History of modern art, 7^th edition. Laurence Kibng Publishing.

The emergence of abstract expressionism was marked by the main art stream in the history of modernism. This new tendency appears as a post-war reaction for the spirits and atmosphere of this time and as the necessity to restore a national cultural identity. Owing to the fact that abstract expressionism appears after the Second World War, one could observe the political impact on the development of twentieth-century art. It is worth saying that this modernistic stream could be regarded as the first American art that depicts the works of the New York community of painters. The post-war expressionists often perceive their creative work as a protest against social realism thus manifesting romantic individuality. The above shows that the establishment of abstract expressionism is the desire of painters to be separated from political art. However, painters were also striving to render political messages to people in the form of expressionist works.

Many critics and writer made their attempts to assess this modernist movement by considering cultural, economic, and social displays of protest against the existed reality. In particular, there exist two opposite views concerning the expressionist concepts, which arise many disputable questions. Thus, a closer consideration of Rosenberg’s essay “The American Action Painters” and Donnel’s article “Space in Abstract Expressionism reveals controversial views on different aspects of painting.

In his essay, Harold Rosenberg makes an emphasis on the properties of the innovated American painting whose works are oriented on the presentation of the material world. In other words, the significance of the new art lies in the constant search for the central and materialized object in order to interpret its psychological state. The critic strongly believes that the main goal of the painters is to saturate their works with emotional and intellectual information thus perpetuating a certain living situation in action. Perhaps, the deepest message that is delivered by Rosenberg lies in the following phrase: “At a certain moment the canvas began to appear to one American painter after another as an arena in which to act – rather as a space in which to reproduce, re-design, analyze or “express” an object, actual or imagined. What was to go on the canvas was not a picture but an event”(57).

Especial consideration refers to Rosenberg’s vision of the picture as the intellectual penetration of the painter on the paper. He refers to the canvas “where the mind records its contests – rather than itself the “mind” through which the painter thinks by changing a surface with paint” (Rosenberg 57). Viewing Pollock’s painting from this angle, his technique is aimed at revealing his accumulated negative or positive emotions that have social and cultural undertones.

In contrast to Donnel’s opinion in terms of space, he believes that this is the main weapon of modernist art where the painters were able to demonstrate the play of colors, which is the main means of expressiveness. Therefore, his “view of the picture as a window had allowed for different penetrations into depth, but regardless of the width of the tract of space used and the expressive distortions….” (239). The critic gives a strong emphasis on space as the main principle of the elusory depiction of the world, which is referred as to a real world. Unlike Rosenberg, Donnel tries to reveal his outlook on the modernist movement through the analysis of technical aspects of writing. Nonetheless, Donnel agrees with Rosenberg’s idea that the canvas is space perceived by the spectator; it is therefore regarded as a communicative space as well (Donnel 239).

Taking a closer look at the style of painting typical of abstract expressionism, it is worth saying that this art movement has many issues to analyze and to compare. The penetration of this general modernistic stream to America meant that most painters were striving to widen the space for their creative work and to fill in with the meaning of each piece of canvas (Donnel 239). Hence Donnel writes that “the awareness of the canvas as a flat surface which overtly and consistently influences the arrangement of the picture elements” so that “the articulation of the surface into depth by means of colors planes, and the distribution of object quality over a series of planes by means of transparency, selections and positive-negative reading of shapes… ”(240). As it can be seen, Cubism, one of the art trends of Abstract Expressionism greatly contributed to the recognition of space as one of the main means for reaching a multidimensional effect; it was also the father of Expressionism.

Referring to the space issue, Pollock tried to activate and make the canvas brighter and more alive; he wanted to conquer the flatness of the picture thus creating chaotic and moving pictures. Especial consideration deserves his work called Autumn Rhythm, which, probably, reveals the main essence of abstractionism and expressiveness. Pollock represents the way the human mood or another abstract phenomenon may be materialized. This work was painted in the second period of his life as there observed the changes in styles and techniques. In particular, the artist refers to brighter colors. At a first glance, the picture is a kind of reaction to the natural phenomena that surround the artist. However, viewing the picture from another angle also renders certain political views of the painter. Pollock also manages to take advantage of space as well, as it serves as the main platform for the color fight.

After a thorough analysis of both views, it should be stressed that Rosenberg’s opinion is more reliable than Donnel’s due to the fact that the former manages to consider modernistic art from different dimensions, including the analysis of social conditions of that time. As for the latter, Donnel fails to fully render the communicative and social value of the painting instead placing an emphasis on the analysis of artistic techniques applied by the artists. What is more, Rosenberg manages to perceive the functions of canvas and its content thus referring to it, not as a way of emotional expression by as to reflection of the painters’ inner world.

It should be stressed that Abstract Expressionism emerged as the reaction to the political and social situation after the Second World War. Various techniques used by the artists were aimed at revealing their resentment to the reality that existed and to the tendency of universalism. Therefore, this modernistic stream was headed by a generation of American painters whose common goal was to break the traditions of American art. Their transaction from reality to abstract subjects testifies to their reluctance to accept the unstable situation in the country, which is the main topic of modernists’ creative activity.

References

Donnel, Radka Zagoroff. Space in Abstract Expressionism. The Journal of Aethetics and Art Criticism. 23.1 (1964): 239-249

Rosenberg Harold. ‘The American Active Painters’. Art Theory and Criticism: An Anthology of Formalist, Avant-Garde, Contexualist and Post-Modernist Thought, US: McFarland, 1995.

Introduction

Art has always been considered to be the expression of the inner world, emotions, and inspiration of the creator of the masterpiece, no matter what kind of art it represents. Art is something that imbues the artist with some divine features, making him/her rise over routine and conventionality of contemporary life, making an artist a Messiah of Art. However, artists have always been people who inspire fervent criticism of the public and there are cases when their masterpieces and the creative process itself are misinterpreted and condemned. It is known that Jackson Pollock inspired great criticism due to his lifestyle since he was treated for alcoholism and some people considered his art to be the creation of an alcoholized brain and they missed the sophistication of Pollock’s paintings (Greenberg & O’Brian, 1995, p. 249). “Convergence” by Pollock, painted in 1952 can be considered a perfect example of new art, called abstract expressionism, as it perfectly demonstrates the uniqueness of the artist’s technique and it is the manifestation of the whole postwar epoch.

“Convergence”

It is known that Pollock had several nicknames, “Action Jackson” among them, and “Convergence” is one of the brightest examples of action painting, an innovation that was introduced by abstract expressionists and Pollock’s paintings demonstrate it perfectly (Mattern, 2005, p. 4). Action painting becomes a substitute for traditional classical rules of painting. The essence of action painting can be understood with the help of “Convergence”. The painting shows that careful application of paint is alien to it as the artist rejects reasoning and gives way to art as action. This action painting sets emotions and creativity free, however, action painting can easily “become a mess” (Cohn, 2008, p. 101). Still, “Convergence” cannot be called a mess, though it does not present any shaped object, it presents the idea instead. Pollock said in one interview: “I have no fears about making changes, destroying the image, etc., because the painting has a life of its own. I try to let it come through” (Karmel, & Varlendoe, 1999, p. 18). Smears of black creating the background can be interpreted as war or negative energy, while white and yellow colors are vehemently attacking it, becoming prevailing. Action painting sets ideas and emotions free, this is why everyone can offer his interpretation of the subject of the picture but no one will object that it shows an idea in action.

It is known that Pollock rejected not only the traditional vision of shape, perspective, image, but he also introduced his instruments and specific paint. It is clear “Convergence” was created without traditional brushes. The strokes and smears were created with some improvised means or fingers, or without any instruments at all, using pouring the liquid paint out of the can. At first glance, “Convergence” suggests that anyone can create such a painting as it seemingly requires no talent. Probably, this was Pollock’s aim: to show that art is available to everyone, that art should give a person freedom. The paints used by Pollock are mere household paints and this proves the idea of abstract expressionism: art available to all people. “Convergence” was also created without an easel, probably, the canvas merely lay on the floor because the stains are equally spread on it. This means that the artist had easy access to the canvas and this figuratively suggests that everyone can get access to art if he/she desires that.

Conclusion

Concluding, it is possible to state that Pollock’s creative work and “Convergence”, in particular, is a perfect example of abstract expressionism that rightfully occupies an important place in the history of painting. “Convergence” brightly demonstrates key innovations of abstract expressionism: action painting and rejection of all traditions (instruments, painting, use of easel). “Convergence” shows life merging with art in the hands of Pollock, a brilliant artist.

Reference List

Cohn, S. (2008). Why We Look at Art, What Happens When We Do. Indianapolis, IN: Dog Ear Publishing.

Greenberg, C., & O’Brian J. (1995). The Collected Essays and Criticism: Modernism with a Vengeance, 1957-1969. USA: University of Chicago Press.

Karmel, P., & Varlendoe K. (1999). Jackson Pollock: Interviews, Articles, and Reviews. New York: The Museum of Modern Art.

Mattern, J. (2005). Jackson Pollock. USA: ABDO Group.