Impressionism - Art History Basics on Impressionism - 1869 to the Present Impressionism is about the nature of fugitive light falling on surfaces. This play of moving light, as opposed to stationary light, expresses the ephemeral quality of modernity. Impressionism is about the temporary, the here and now, and not about the timeless, the forever. Impressionism is about life lived in bursts of brief encounters in the city. It's about faster speeds, quickly moving clouds, sunshine reflected on water, and the shimmer of satin ribbons dangling from a baby's cradle. Above all, Impressionism is about modernity: its faster pace and various improvements in the quality of daily life. The artists who seemed to quickly jot down these instances of modern life were playfully dubbed "Impressionists" and their paintings became known as "Impressionism." However, the critics' nickname was not a compliment, for at this time "serious" artists blended their colors and minimized the appearance of brushstrokes to produce the "licked" surface preferred by the academic masters.
Japonisme | Thematic Essay The Old Plum, Edo period (1615–1868), ca. 1645Kano Sansetsu (Japanese, ca. 1589–1651)Four sliding door panels (fusuma); ink, color, gold leaf on paper H. 68 3/4 in. (174.6 cm)The Harry G. C. Packard Collection of Asian Art, Gift of Harry G. C. Packard and Purchase, Fletcher, Rogers, Harris Brisbane Dick and Louis V. After Japanese ports reopened to trade with the West in 1853, a tidal wave of foreign imports flooded European shores. Parisians saw their first formal exhibition of Japanese arts and crafts when Japan took a pavilion at the World's Fair of 1867. It is said that James Whistler discovered Japanese prints in a Chinese tearoom near London Bridge and that Claude Monet first came upon them used as wrapping paper in a spice shop in Holland. Degas' American friend Mary Cassatt (16.2.5), who declared that she "hated conventional art," found in Japanese woodcuts like those of Utamaro (JP1278) a fresh approach to the depiction of common events in women's lives.
Abstract Expressionism | Thematic Essay The Flesh Eaters, 1952 William Baziotes (American, 1912–1963) Oil and charcoal on canvas; 60 x 72 1/8 in. (152.4 x 183.2 cm) Purchase, George A. Hearn Fund, Arthur Hoppock Hearn Fund, and Hearn Funds, Bequest of Charles F. Iklé, and Gifts of Mrs. Carroll J. Post and Mrs. A new vanguard emerged in the early 1940s, primarily in New York, where a small group of loosely affiliated artists created a stylistically diverse body of work that introduced radical new directions in art—and shifted the art world's focus. Context Abstract Expressionism developed in the context of diverse, overlapping sources and inspirations. But it was the exposure to and assimilation of European modernism that set the stage for the most advanced American art. The crisis of war and its aftermath are key to understanding the concerns of the Abstract Expressionists. Mature Abstract Expressionism: Color Field Another path lay in the expressive potential of color.
Guide to Impressionism | Paintings by Monet, Degas and Renoir The term 'Impressionist' was first used as an insult in response to an exhibition of new paintings in Paris in 1874. A diverse group of painters, rejected by the art establishment, defiantly set up their own exhibition. They included Monet, Renoir, Pissarro and Degas. What characterises Impressionism for most people nowadays, is both the subject matter and the technique. Today, the Impressionist paintings are some of the best-known and best-loved in the collection. When Impressionism Was a Dirty Word The Academic Tradition By the 19th century, the art world in France had been controlled for over two centuries by the powerful national art academy, the Royal Academy of Art. The origins of the Royal Academy of Art in France (in French, École des Beaux-Arts) go back to 1648 when it was founded by Cardinal Mazarin for King Louis XIV. The Academy was set up to train the most talented students in drawing, painting, sculpture, and architecture. Over time, it became a powerful organization that controlled both what was taught and what was exhibited in France. The curriculum required students to prove their skills with basic drawing tasks before advancing to figure drawing and painting. The Barbizon School A group of painters now known as the Barbizon artists, named for the region of France that they worked in, began to turn increasingly towards landscape as a subject matter, painting outdoors, or en plein air, directly from nature.
Impression, Sunrise Impression, Sunrise (Impression, soleil levant) is a painting by Claude Monet. It gave rise to the name of the Impressionist movement. History[edit] Dated 1872, its subject is the harbour of Le Havre in France, using very loose brush strokes that suggest rather than delineate it. Monet explained the title later: Landscape is nothing but an impression, and an instantaneous one, hence this label that was given us, by the way because of me. It was first displayed in 1874[2] during the first independent art show of the Impressionists (who were not yet known by that name). Impression—I was certain of it. The painting was stolen from the Musée Marmottan Monet in 1985 by Philippe Jamin and Youssef Khimoun but recovered in 1990.[3] Since 1991 it has been back on display in the museum.[4] Colour and luminance[edit] Desaturated version of the painting: note how the sun is virtually invisible here.[5] See also[edit] Rayleigh scattering References[edit]
Task 1 Impressionism Movement, Artists and Major Works | The Art Story "Impressionism is only direct sensation. All great painters were less or more impressionists. It is mainly a question of instinct." Impressionism can be considered the first distinctly modern movement in painting. Developing in Paris in the 1860s, its influence spread throughout Europe and eventually the United States. Impressionism was a style of representational art that did not necessarily rely on realistic depictions. The Impressionists loosened their brushwork and lightened their palettes to include pure, intense colors. Impressionism records the effects of the massive mid-nineteenth-century renovation of Paris led by civic planner Georges-Eugène Haussmann, which included the city's newly constructed railway stations; wide, tree-lined boulevards that replaced the formerly narrow, crowded streets; and large, deluxe apartment buildings. Subscribe to Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Welcome to The Art Story! Error occured while saving data... Like The Art Story Foundation on Facebook
Expressionism Movement, Artists and Major Works | The Art Story "Everyone who renders directly and honestly whatever drives him to create is one of us." Expressionism emerged simultaneously in various cities across Germany as a response to a widespread anxiety about humanity's increasingly discordant relationship with the world and accompanying lost feelings of authenticity and spirituality. In part a reaction against Impressionism and academic art, Expressionism was inspired most heavily by the Symbolist currents in late nineteenth-century art. Vincent van Gogh, Edvard Munch, and James Ensor proved particularly influential to the Expressionists, encouraging the distortion of form and the deployment of strong colors to convey a variety of anxieties and yearnings. The arrival of Expressionism announced new standards in the creation and judgment of art. Expressionist artists often employed swirling, swaying, and exaggeratedly executed brushstrokes in the depiction of their subjects. Beginnings Edvard Munch in Norway Gustav Klimt in Austria
Fauvism Movement, Artists and Major Works | The Art Story "If the trees look yellow to the artist then painted a bright yellow they must be." Synopsis Fauvism was the first twentieth-century movement in modern art. Key Ideas Fauvism never developed into a coherent movement in the manner of Impressionism or Surrealism, but instead grew from the work of several acquaintances who shared common enthusiasms. The Fauves generally rejected the fantastic imagery of the Post-Impressionists, and returned to the more traditional subjects once favored by the Impressionists, such as landscapes, cityscapes, and scenes of bourgeois leisure. Rather than extend the quasi-scientific investigations of artists such as Seurat and Signac, Fauves such as Matisse and Derain were inspired by them to employ pattern and contrasting colors for the purposes of personal expression. The Fauves became renowned for using pure and unmixed colors, which they intensified further by applying paint in thick daubs and smears. Beginnings Henri Matisse Develops His Style Concepts and Styles
Fauvism - New Possibilities for Color in Art Fauvism PAUL GAUGUIN (1884-1903) 'Vision after the Sermon', 1888 (oil on canvas) Fauvism has its roots in the post-impressionist paintings of Paul Gauguin. It was his use of symbolic color that pushed art towards the style of Fauvism. Gauguin proposed that color had a symbolic vocabulary which could be used to visually translate a range of emotions. 'Les Fauves' HENRI MATISSE (1869-1954) 'The Roofs of Collioure', 1905 (oil on canvas) At the start of the 20th century, two young artists, Henri Matisse and André Derain formed the basis of a group of painters who enjoyed painting pictures with outrageously bold colors. Henri Matisse and André Derain HENRI MATISSE (1869-1954) 'The Open Window, Collioure', 1905 (oil on canvas) In 1905, Matisse and Derain went to stay in the port of Collioure in the south of France and the Fauvist pictures that they painted there revolutionized attitudes towards color in art. ANDRÉ DERAIN (1880-1954) 'Portrait of Henri Matisse', 1906 (oil on canvas) Fauvism Notes