Expressionism
[6] While the word expressionist was used in the modern sense as early as 1850, its origin is sometimes traced to paintings exhibited in 1901 in Paris by obscure artist Julien-Auguste Hervé, which he called Expressionismes.[7] An alternative view is that the term was coined by the Czech art historian Antonin Matějček in 1910 as the opposite of Impressionism: "An Expressionist wishes, above all, to express himself... (an Expressionist rejects) immediate perception and builds on more complex psychic structures... Impressions and mental images that pass through ... people's soul as through a filter which rids them of all substantial accretions to produce their clear essence [...and] are assimilated and condensed into more general forms, into types, which he transcribes through simple short-hand formulae and symbols."[8] Important precursors of Expressionism were the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900), especially his philosophical novel Thus Spoke Zarathustra (1883–1892); the later plays of the Swedish dramatist August Strindberg (1849–1912), including the trilogy To Damascus (1898–1901), A Dream Play (1902), The Ghost Sonata (1907); Frank Wedekind (1864–1918), especially the "Lulu" plays Erdgeist (Earth Spirit) (1895) and Die Büchse der Pandora (Pandora's Box) (1904); the American poet Walt Whitman's (1819–1892) Leaves of Grass (1855–1891); the Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoevsky (1821–1881); Norwegian painter Edvard Munch (1863–1944); Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh (1853–1890); Belgian painter James Ensor (1860–1949);[9] and pioneering Austrian psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud (1856–1939)."[12] Richard Murphy also comments, “the search for an all-inclusive definition is problematic to the extent that the most challenging expressionists such as Kafka, Gottfried Benn and Döblin were simultaneously the most vociferous 'anti-expressionists.In reaction and opposition to French Impressionism, which emphasized the rendering of the visual appearance of objects, Expressionist artists sought to portray emotions and subjective interpretations.It was not important to reproduce an aesthetically pleasing impression of the artistic subject matter, they felt, but rather to represent vivid emotional reactions by powerful colours and dynamic compositions.Kandinsky, the main artist of Der Blaue Reiter, believed that with simple colours and shapes the spectator could perceive the moods and feelings in the paintings, a theory that encouraged him towards increased abstraction.[5] There was an Expressionist style in German cinema, important examples of which are Robert Wiene's The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920), Paul Wegener's The Golem: How He Came into the World (1920), Fritz Lang's Metropolis (1927) and F. W. Murnau's Nosferatu, a Symphony of Horror (1922) and The Last Laugh (1924).More generally, the term expressionism can be used to describe cinematic styles of great artifice, such as the technicolor melodramas of Douglas Sirk or the sound and visual design of David Lynch's films.Der Sturm published poetry and prose from contributors such as Peter Altenberg, Max Brod, Richard Dehmel, Alfred Döblin, Anatole France, Knut Hamsun, Arno Holz, Karl Kraus, Selma Lagerlöf, Adolf Loos, Heinrich Mann, Paul Scheerbart, and René Schickele, and writings, drawings, and prints by such artists as Kokoschka, Kandinsky, and members of Der blaue Reiter.In Sorge's The Beggar, (Der Bettler), for example, the young hero's mentally ill father raves about the prospect of mining the riches of Mars and is finally poisoned by his son.Directors also made heavy use of lighting effects to create stark contrast and as another method to heavily emphasize emotion and convey the play or a scene's message.[76] Other composers that have been associated with expressionism are Krenek (the Second Symphony), Paul Hindemith (The Young Maiden), Igor Stravinsky (Japanese Songs), Alexander Scriabin (late piano sonatas) (Adorno 2009, 275).Erwartung and Die Glückliche Hand, by Schoenberg, and Wozzeck, an opera by Alban Berg (based on the play Woyzeck by Georg Büchner), are examples of Expressionist works.[82] In architecture, two specific buildings are identified as Expressionist: Bruno Taut's Glass Pavilion of the Cologne Werkbund Exhibition (1914), and Erich Mendelsohn's Einstein Tower in Potsdam, Germany completed in 1921.
Abstract ExpressionismExpressivismEdvard MunchThe ScreamNational Gallery of NorwayDie BrückeDer Blaue ReiterBerlin SecessionSchool of ParisDresden SecessionAmerican Figurative ExpressionismBoston ExpressionismmodernistmovementpoetrypaintingNorthern Europeavant-gardeFirst World WarWeimar Republicexpressionist architecturetheatreMatthias GrünewaldEl GrecopositivismImpressionismView of ToledoManneristWassily KandinskyEgon SchieleÖsterreichische Galerie BelvedereAugust MackePromenadeStädtische Galerie im LenbachhausMunichpsychicFriedrich Nietzschephilosophical novelThus Spoke ZarathustraAugust StrindbergTo DamascusA Dream PlayThe Ghost SonataFrank WedekindWalt WhitmanFyodor DostoevskyVincent van GoghJames EnsorSigmund FreudErnst Ludwig KirchnerFranz MarcPaul KleeAdolf HitlerFuturismVorticismCubismSurrealismDadaismGottfried BennDöblinrealismProtestant ReformationGerman Peasants' WarEighty Years' Warpopular printsBaroqueWalter BenjaminAlberto ArbasinoAlvar CawénRolf NeschDie großen blauen PferdeXul SolarMartiros SaryanSidney NolanCharles BlackmanJohn PercevalAlbert TuckerJoy HesterWolfgang DegenhardtHunter ValleyRichard GerstlOskar KokoschkaJosef GasslerAlfred KubinMarcel CaronAnto CarteAuguste MambourFlemish ExpressionistsConstant PermekeGustave De SmetFrits Van den BergheAlbert ServaesFloris JespersGustave Van de WoestijneAnita MalfattiCândido PortinariDi CavalcantiIberê CamargoLasar SegallJens SøndergaardOluf HøstKonrad MägiEduard WiiraltKuno VeeberTyko SallinenWäinö AaltonenFrédéric FiebigGeorges RouaultAlexandre FrenelGeorges GimelGen PaulMarie-Thérèse AuffrayJacques DémoulinBernard BuffetErnst BarlachMax BeckmannFritz BleylHeinrich CampendonkOtto DixConrad FelixmüllerGeorge GroszErich HeckelCarl HoferMax KausKäthe KollwitzWilhelm Lehmbruck