Art History Final Assignment: Art Movement Expressionism

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Art Movement: Expressionism
Art is the utilization of color aspects and shape to represent the actual world entity. Various artists started to emerge in the early 1900s with the aim of not realizing the accurate and realistic representation of a particular element but with a view of taking an object and exaggerating it and sometimes simplifying the object using its form and color. According to the Hashem McAdam research (1971), there are various art movement types which were embraced by various artists at different times with different objectives. Some of the common modern art movements utilized include expressionism, formalism, impressionism, and realism. Expressionism majorly targeted at bringing emotional effects of the subject with clarity. The paper will major in the expressionism as an art movement, its characteristics, and the artist who utilized it, their background and outstanding aspects in their artworks.
Expressionism as an art movement
The movement was first launched in Germany in the early 1900s. Specifically, expressionism was initiated between the years1905 to 1925. The artists in this movement aimed at painting to express their inner feelings on the subject matter. The emotions could have been driven by fear, anger, anxiety or even peacefulness. The American expressionism research reveals that the artist of the movement sought to show the meaning of emotional experience as compared to the physical reality. It was commonly utilized in Northern Europe. In the year 1905, a group of artists from Germany led by Ludwig Earnest Kirchner launched Die Bruke in Dresden city. Other artists include; Bleyl Fritz, Karl Schmidt –Rottluff and Heckel Enrich. They are regarded to be the founding organization of the Germany expressionist movement. Later on, the style extended to a wide range of fields, such as, expressionists of the architecture, literature, painting, dance, theatre, music and film. The style of the art movement aimed at challenging the traditional academic style of fine art which included by then, post-impressionism and impressionism. According to the Czech art historian, the expressionism was meant to mean the opposite of impressionism. In the real sense, impressionism targeted at realizing the majesty of nature and the human form through the art of painting. Also, expression aimed at achieving inner life, mostly through the painting of harsh and realistic subject. According to Bram Dijkstra in his book America expressionism (2003) revealed that this art movement emphasized on the perspectives of an individual and featured the reactions of naturalism, positivism, and impressionism.
The characteristics of expressionism
The art form was characterized by stylization and distortion and emphasized more on simplifying forms. Expressionism relied on the perception of the artist basing on their impression of the subject matter. The characteristics of this art movement entail; visible brush stroke, unorthodox utilization of color and the distortion of forms. When it comes to the distortion of the form, the images in this regard may be elongated, weirdly shaped or compressed to express emotions. Unorthodox colors such as yellow, purple and red which are regarded as unse...