Expressionism

Most closely associated with the visual arts, expressionism is an international artistic movement that reached its height in Germany during the early part of the twentieth century. Conceptually, expressionism was defined by the efforts of artists to capture and communicate their subjective thoughts, feelings, and emotions with regard to the subject being depicted. In painting, the key stylistic characteristics of expressionism include distortions of space and perspective, bold outlines, strong colors, and thick layers of paint applied with free, loose brushstrokes.

Rather than drawing on the external world for inspiration, expressionist artists looked within themselves, seeking to portray their complex, often anxiety-driven responses to life in a rapidly modernizing world. The message an expressionist piece conveys, and the feelings it inspires, are considered more important than its formal or technical characteristics. Beyond the visual arts, expressionism had a profound influence on early cinema as well as the performing arts, literature, and printmaking.

Background

There is a consensus among art historians that expressionism was, in part, a reaction to the academic nature of impressionism, a highly influential nineteenth-century artistic movement that introduced new ways of capturing the visual effects of movement, light, and color. Championed by artists including Claude Monet, Paul Cézanne, Edgar Degas, and Édouard Manet, impressionism was one of the first art styles to place strong emphasis on the subjective perceptions of the artist. However, it was more oriented toward form and technique, leaving it rooted in the intellect rather than the realm of emotion.

During the latter half of the nineteenth century, impressionism moved into a new phase known as post-impressionism. The post-impressionists began to experiment with form and perspective, introducing distortions to heighten the expressive and emotional impact of a painting. Post-impressionism also came to include elements of symbolism, an overlapping movement that incorporated mystical and symbolic figures as an additional way of generating meaning. As a clearly defined artistic movement, expressionism emerged from the influences of post-impressionism and symbolism. It was also shaped by fauvism, a style of modern art that became popular around the turn of the twentieth century. Fauvism was defined by rich color, energetic brushstrokes, and abstract representations of subject matter.

Europe's changing social and cultural landscapes also informed the development of the expressionistic style. During the late nineteenth century, European cities were modernizing and growing at very rapid rates. This gave rise to the phenomenon of urban alienation, or a sense of feeling disconnected from other people despite being surrounded by them at virtually all times. In addition to trying to capture the anxieties of urban life, expressionism also mounted penetrating social commentaries against capitalism, which was seen as the driving force behind the rapid rise of the modern metropolis.

Expressionism largely developed in Germany during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, although there were also Paris-based expressionist schools of painting. Although he is usually classified as a post-impressionist, Vincent van Gogh is frequently cited as a strong influence on expressionism. Other noteworthy pioneers include Paul Gauguin and Edvard Munch. Gauguin's richly colored, deeply symbolic canvases broke new stylistic ground, and Munch's seminal 1893 painting The Scream is sometimes referred to as the first great work in the expressionist style.

Impact

Expressionism is usually said to have reached its height between about 1910 and 1925. In the visual arts, it was led by creators such as Max Beckmann, Otto Dix, Georges Rouault, Ernst Kirchner, Oskar Kokoschka, and Franz Marc. In its mature phase, the expressionist style was marked by dynamic, complex formal elements that used exaggeration, distortion, elements of fantasy and violence, and vivid juxtapositions of shapes and objects to generate instinct-driven emotional and psychological responses. In addition to richly applied color, expressionism also favored interplays between light and shadow to achieve its effects. This use of light and shadow is particularly apparent in expressionist-influenced filmmaking styles, which arose in Germany in the years following World War I (1914–1918).

Expressionism had a profound impact on the early development of cinema, and this is one of the most apparent and important aspects of its artistic legacy. Two highly influential early expressionist films are The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1919), directed by Robert Wiene, and Nosferatu (1922), directed by F.W. Murnau. Both offer strong examples of expressionism's preoccupation with fear and anxiety, emotions that captured the prevailing mood in Europe during the interwar period. Later directors such as Fritz Lang brought expressionism to Hollywood, where it helped shape the visual style of the film noir genre, one of the major movie movements of the 1940s. Expressionism also had a strong influence on the work of popular and successful directors including Orson Welles and Alfred Hitchcock.

In literature, expressionism's strongest influence can be seen in German drama and poetry of the early twentieth century. Expressionist drama grappled with spiritual and philosophical questions raised by life in the modern world, frequently criticizing bourgeois values and using characters as vehicles for symbolic representation. Works by playwrights including Reinhard Sorge and Georg Kaiser offer quintessential examples. In poetry, expressionism relied on associative qualities to achieve its emotional impact, showing thematic preoccupations with urban alienation and the impending collapse of civilization.

After World War II (1939–1945), a new expressionist-influenced school of painting emerged in the United States, particularly New York City. Known as abstract expressionism, this painting style marked a complete break with representational convention, applying the emotional and subjective aims of expressionism to abstract forms. Acknowledged as one of the first uniquely American art forms, abstract expressionism grew not only from its expressionist roots but also from the esoteric works of modern European artists including Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, and Wassily Kandinsky. Like its predecessor, abstract expressionism was shaped by the anxieties, fears, and uncertainties brought on by worldwide military conflict and accelerated by the development of atomic weapons and the emergence of the Cold War conflict between the United States and the Soviet Union. Its major figures include Robert Motherwell, Helen Frankenthaler, and Jackson Pollock.

Bibliography

Bassie, Ashley. Expressionism. Parkstone International, 2014.

Crabbe, Eoghan. "The Shadow of German Expressionism in Cinema." Film Inquiry, 20 June 2016, www.filminquiry.com/german-expressionism/. Accessed 17 Nov. 2016.

Elger, Dietmar. Expressionism: A Revolution in German Art. Taschen, 2002.

"Expressionism." The Art Story: Modern Art Insight, www.theartstory.org/movement-expressionism.htm. Accessed 17 Nov. 2016.

"German Expressionism." Museum of Modern Art, www.moma.org/explore/collection/ge/index. Accessed 17 Nov. 2016.

"German Expressionism." Tate, www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/g/german-expressionism. Accessed 17 Nov. 2016.

"German Expressionism Collection." University of Maryland, 20 Oct. 2016, lib.guides.umd.edu/c.php?g=326833&p=2194180. Accessed on 17 Nov. 2016.

Roberts, Ian. German Expressionist Cinema: The World of Light and Shadow. Wallflower Press, 2008.