Expressionism as an Artistic Movement

As an artistic movement, the original form of Expressionism encompassed all progressive movements from Fauvism and Cubism to Futurism and early abstract works. In its later form, Expressionism denoted the artistic movement that reached its peak in the early part of the 20th Century, primarily in Germany (Dictionary of 20th Century Art). This paper will describe the concerns, subject matter and motivations of Expressionism as an artistic movement, and compare it with other aesthetic positions such as Impressionism.

Expressionism may be viewed as a reaction to Impressionism. The Impressionistic movement itself was a reaction to the rigid academic conventions of the Salon. The concern of the Impressionists Monet, Renoir, Manet, Morisot, Degas, Cezanne, Cassatt, Pissarro was to capture "an instantaneous impression of a scene in nature" (Stokstad 1019). Monet's Impression, Sunrise, and Manet's Le Dejeuner sur l'Herbe are two examples. In addition to nature, other Impressionist subject matter included scenes of city life and urban leisure. Examples include Monet's Boulevard des Capucines, Paris, and Renoir's Moulin de la Galette. As Stokstad observes, Renoir glamorized

Related Essays

Analytic Cubism .... democratic appeal of emerging movements, in particular Abstract Expressionism and then .... Pevsner announced their intention for a new artistic movement in their .... (3161 13 )

Fritz Lang .... World War I philosophy of film known as German Expressionism (Giannetti, 1990 .... 16:4). A prominent artistic movement, many filmmakers, including the above as well .... (1820 7 )

German Expressionism Ger .... Walden promoted Expressionism in Der Sturm and assured financial .... he thought was an individual artistic effort was .... others who were part of a larger movement. .... (2935 12 )

Willem de Kooning .... figures within the Abstract Expressionist movement and was one of those who throughout his artistic career never departed from Expressionism though he did not .... (1294 5 )

Literary Movements .... movements, being itself a form of Expressionism and producing .... first as a means of artistic expression and .... The Dada movement had been important during and after .... (1519 6 )

Category: Arts - E