expressionism

Art

2022

We explain what expressionism is, its characteristics, abstract and German expressionism. Also, their works and authors.

The origin of expressionism took place in Germany.

What is Expressionism?

When we speak of expressionism we refer to an artistic and cultural movement that emerged in 20th century Germany, and which encompassed a large number of creators in different ways. disciplines artistic, such as painting, the sculpture, the literature, the architecture, the movie theater, the theater, the dance, the Photography, etc. Its fundamental principle tends to be summarized in the deformation of reality to express the emotional and psychological content, that is, subjective, of the artist.

Along with French Fauvism, Expressionism is one of the first artistic movements to be classified as Vanguards (the "Historical Vanguards"), despite the fact that more than a homogeneous movement it was a style, a attitude, which brought together a diversity of movements and tendencies, whose common axis was their opposition to the Impressionism dominant since the late nineteenth century and its association with philosophy positivist.

Thus, it is possible to speak of many expressionisms: the Fauvist, the modernist, Cubist, futuristic, surreal, abstract, etc. Although its origin took place in Germany, mainly with the groups Die Brücke and Der Blaue Reiter, it was a trend that became popular throughout Europe and even the American countries. The term "expressionist" was used for the first time in 1901 to designate a series of paintings presented at the Salon des Indépendants in Paris, and is attributed to Julién-Auguste Hervé.

Characteristics of expressionism

Expressionism is a trend with a lot of stylistic diversity.

Expressionism is considered a reaction against the principles of objectivity of Impressionism, imposing on the art the work of representing in a subjective way, that is, distorted, deformed, the artist's emotionality, and not a faithful reflection of what the poet observes in the real world. Initially this referred only to painting, but later it migrated to the rest of the arts.

This victory of subjectivity produced, in the first instance, a tendency towards colors violent, towards the theme of loneliness and misery, which is generally interpreted as the feelings that existed in interwar Germany, submerged in crisis political and economic, which prompted a desire for the renewal of artistic languages.

However, Expressionism quickly adapted to other geographies Y cultures, becoming a reflection of other subjectivities different from the German one. Thus, expressionism is far from being a homogeneous or easily definable movement, since it is a current with a lot of stylistic diversity.

This movement disappeared after the WWII (1939-1945), but left a strong imprint on other artistic currents of the mid-20th century, such as American Abstract Expressionism or German Neo-Expressionism, as well as on the work of many individual authors.

Abstract expressionism

Abstract expressionism uses messy or violent strokes.

It is known as Abstract Expressionism to an artistic movement that emerged in the United States around 1940 and then spread to the rest of the world, being the first properly American movement in the history of the arts.

It is understood as a combination of abstract art with the precepts of European expressionism, achieving a very subjective degree of expression of the artist's interiority from chaotic forms, disordered or violent lines, which is why it is also known as Action painting ("Action painting") or Drip painting ("Drip painting"), and is associated with the so-called New York School, a group of artists of the time who shared this idea of ​​art.

Some of its great exponents were Arshile Gorky, considered its founder and leader of the group, William Baziotes, Adolph Gottlieb, Franz Kline, Robert Motherwell, Mark Rothko, Clyfford Still and authors of the international renown Jackson Pollock.

German expressionism

Instead, the initial trend of the expressionist movement, which emerged in Germany in the interwar period, is called German Expressionism, although this movement later became an international phenomenon.

Its appearance in Germany is not a fortuitous event, but it is nourished by the numerous and in-depth studies of art that took place in that country since before the 19th century, especially with regard to the romanticism and to the contributions in the field of character aesthetics by Wagner and Nietzsche, among others. This is how the Innerer Drang ("inner need") was formed, the result of the separation between the real world and the inner world of the artist, and a key concept in the emergence of Expressionism, which tried to capture this feeling.

Expressionism was branded as "Degenerate Art" by Nazism during the 1930s and 1940s, and banned for alleged links with it. communism and of course subversive political content. Perhaps for that reason after the Second World War it disappeared as a trend.

Expressionism works

The Light of the Eyes was composed by Anton von Webern in 1935.

Some of the most representative works of Expressionism in the different arts are:

  • Painting.
    • Fränzi before a carved chair by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner when we have the information.
    • Blue horse by Franz Marc
    • The Scream by Edvard Munch
    • Senecio by Paul Klee
    • The blue rider by Vasili Kandinski
  • Literature.
    • Danton's death by Georg Büchner
    • The awakening of spring by Frank Wedekind
    • Damascus road by August Strindberg
    • The magic mountain by Thomas Mann
    • Metamorphosis by Frank Kafka
  • Music.
    • Pierrot lunaire by Arnold Schönberg
    • The light of the eyes by Anton von Webern
    • Wozzek by Alban Berg
  • Movie theater.
    • The golem by Paul Wegener and Henrik Gaalen
    • The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari by Robert Wiene
    • Nosferatu, the vampire by Friedrich Murnau
    • M, the vampire of Düsseldorf by Fritz Lang

Authors and representatives

Expressionism enjoys numerous and acclaimed exponents in all artistic areas, many of whom are among the most famous contemporary artists in the world, such as:

  • Painting. Arnold Bröcklin (Swiss, 1827-1901), Heinrich Nauen (German, 1880-1940), Ernst Ludwig Kirchner (German, 1880-1938), Paul Klee (Swiss, 1879-1940), Vasili Kandinski (Russian, 1866-1944) , Franz Marc (German, 1880-1916), Egon Schiele (Austrian, 1890-1918), Amedeo Modigliani (Italian, 1884-1920), Marc Chagall (Belarusian, 1887-1985), Edward Hopper (American, 1882-1967) , Diego Rivera (Mexican, 1886-1957) or Frida Kahlo (Mexican, 1907-1954).
  • Music. Arnold Schönberg (Austrian, 1874-1951), Anton Webern (Austrian, 1883-1945), Alban Berg (Austrian, 1885-1935), Paul Hildemith (German, 1895-1963), Viktor Ullman (Polish, 1898-1944).
  • Literature. Georg Büchner (German, 1813-1837), August Strindberg (Swedish, 1849-1912), Thomas Mann (German, 1875-1955), Gottfried Benn (German, 1886-1956), Franz Kafka (Czech, 1883-1924), Georg Trakl (Austrian, 1887-1914), Bertoldt Brecht (German, 1898-1956), Ramón María del Valle-Inclán (Spanish, 1866-1936).
  • Movie theater. Robert Wiene (German, 1873-1938), Friedrich Murnau (German, 1888-1931), Fritz Lang (Austrian, 1890-1976), Paul Wegener (German, 1874-1948), Robert Siodmak (German, 1900-1973).
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