EXPRESSIONISM: Scream for the Spirit!

“The stuff of thought is

the seed of the artist.
Dreams form the
bristles of the artist’s
brush. As the eye
functions as the brain’s
sentry, I communicate
my innermost
perceptions through the
art, my worldview.”
-Arshile Gorgy,
Abstract Expressionist
 Expressionism…
 to present the world solely from a subjective
perspective, distorting it radically for emotional
effect in order to evoke moods or ideas.
 Expressionist artists sought to express meaning
or emotional experience rather than physical
reality
 The art aims to reflect the artist's state of mind
rather than the reality of the external world
-
http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/tl/20th/expressionism.html
 1905-1937
Early Expressionism in Europe
 tended to dwell on the darker, sinister aspects of the human psyche
 a fascination with the enticing yet often sordid experiences of modern urban life
 emotionally charged portraiture
 the need to confront the devastating experience of World War I and its
aftermath.
 Renouncing the stiff bourgeois social values that prevailed at the turn of the
20th century, and rejecting the stale traditions of the state-sponsored art
academies, they turned to boldly simplified or distorted forms and exaggerated,
sometimes clashing colors
 Directness, frankness, and a desire to startle the viewer characterize
Expressionism in its various branches and permutations.

Artists:
Vasily Kandinsky, Heinrich Campendonk, Max Beckmann, Egon Schiele
http://www.moma.org/explore/collection/ge/index
Some Important Artists from Early
Expressionism

Vasily Kandinsky Vasily Kandinsky

Picture with an Archer Untitled (Ohne Titel)
1909 1915
Heinrich Campendonk
Two Goats
1918

Heinrich Campendonk
Jean Bloé Niestlé
1921
Max Beckmann
Königin Bar (Self-Portrait)
Max Beckmann
1920
Morgue (Totenhaus)
1922
Egon Schiele
Egon Schiele
Shaw or the Irony (Shaw
Death and the Maiden
oder die Ironie)...
1915
1910
 1920-1950
Expressionism in America
 From the 1920s until after the end of World War II, a
distinctly American form of Expressionism evolved.
 Most of the artists in this movement, children of
immigrants from eastern and southern Europe,
African-Americans and other outsiders to American
mainstream culture, grew up in the urban ghettoes of
the East Coast or Chicago.
 Artists tackled social problems such as poverty, the
working poor, the Great Depression, racism, anti-
Semitism, the onset of Fascism, World War II and
nuclear threat during the Cold War.
Artists:
Philip Guston, Max Weber, Marsden Hartley
Philip Guston, The Tormentors, 1947-8

Philip Guston, The Porch, No. 2, 1947

 Chinese Restaurant
Max Weber
Max Weber 1915
Grand Central Station
1915
Marsden Hartley Marsden Hartely
E Sustained Comedy
1915 1939
 1950-1960s
Abstract Expressionism
 an American post-World War II movement
 the first specifically American movement to achieve
international influence and put New York City at the center
of the western art world, a role formerly filled by Paris
 Painterly style of messiness and extremely energetic
applications of paint – sometimes called “action painting”.
 a supposed unconscious manifestation of the act of pure
creation
 To many viewers, the whole movement seemed like
youthful antagonism--hardly worthy of the name "art."
Artists:
Arshile Gorky, Willem de Kooning, Jackson Pollock, Joan
Mitchell
Arshile Gorgy
They Will Take My Island Arshile Gorky
1944 Garden in Sochi
1941
 Willem de Kooning
Willem de Kooning Two Figures in the
Gotham News Landscape
1955 1967
Jackson Pollock
Number 1
1949
Joan Mitchell
Untitled
1950 Joan Mitchell
Girolata Triptych
1964
 Late 1970s -1990s
Neo-Expressionism
 the arrival of graffiti art (the expressive rawness of graffiti
marks) in the galleries in the 1980s
 artists return to working with form while depicting the
world as it existed, in all its harshness and ugliness
 artists did not feel obliged to glorify the world or "tamper
with reality"
 Supporters of Neo-Expressionism, and the larger return to
painting in the 1980s, argued that Conceptual Art,
Minimalism, and Pop Art had neglected art's ability to
activate the imagination, to invent myth, and to allow for
human emotion in art

Artists:
Anselm Kiefer, Francesco Clemente, Jean-Michel Basquiat
Anselm Kiefer Anselm Kiefer
Grane The Paths of World Wisdom:
Hermann’s Battle
1980-1993
1982–93
 Francesco
Clemente
I
1982
Francesco Clemente
My Parents
1982
Jean-Michel Basquiat Jean-Michel Basquiat
Untitled (Skull) Mona Lisa
1984 1983
Jean-Michel Basquiat
Notary
1983
Among the various styles that arose
within the expressionist art
movements were:
• Neoprimitivism
• Fauvism
• Dadaism
• Surrealism
• Social realism
Neoprimitivism
 An art style that incorporated
elements from the native arts of
the South Sea Islanders and the
wood carvings of African tribes
which suddenly became popular
at that time.
 Amedeo Modigliani

Yellow Sweater Head

Oil on canvas
Fauvism
A style that used bold, vibrant colors
and visual distortions. Its name was
derived from les fauves (wild beasts)
referring to the group of French
expressionist painters.
 Henri Matisse
 Henri Matisse

Blue Window Woman with Hat

Dadaism
 A style characterized by dream fantasies,
memory images, and visual tricks and
surprises. The works appeared playful, the
movement arose from the pain that a
group of European artist felt after the
suffering brought by World War 1.
 Dada- “non-style”
Melancholy and Mystery of a Street I and the Village
Surealism
 A style that depicted an illogical,
subconscious dream world beyond the
logical, conscious, physical one.
 “super surealism” – artworks clearly
expressing a departure from reality—as
though the artist were dreaming, seeing
illusions, or experiencing an altered
mental state.
Persistence of Memory Personage with Star
Salvador Dali, 1931 Joan Miro, 1933
 Diana
Paul Klee, 1932
Social Surealism
 Express the artist’s role in social
reform. Artist used their works to
protest against injustices, inequalities,
immorality, and ugliness of human
condition.
--Spoke out against
the hazardous
conditions faced by
coal miners, after a
tragic accident killed
111 workers in Illinois
in 1947, leaving their
wives and children in
mourning.

Miner’s Wives
Ben Shahn,1948
Egg Tempera on Board
 Questions to ponder…
 Why do you think that artists have
consistently gone back to expressionism
throughout the last 100 plus years?
 Do you feel this art is relevant to an
audience/viewers or only important for the
artist?
 Is it imperative for artists to express their
emotions/feelings through their artwork in
a way that others can easily understand?