Research Paper: Expressionism Era

Expressionism Era
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Expressionism Era
Introduction
People are social beings. This attribute moves or makes people share their thoughts in different ways. Since time immemorial, mankind has been communicating or sharing their thoughts in different ways. The channels have evolved over the years, but the essence of the action has remained the same. Language, for example, has been the most popular channel of communication. People all over the world use it to share their thoughts and to bridge geographical and cultural gaps. Like the other channels of communication, it has evolved, and some languages have been phased out as society has continued to evolve. Another channel of communication that has ties to the earliest eras in the history of humanity is art. Art has been used to express thoughts about current affairs, the past, and the imaginations of artists. However, unlike languages that use words in sequence, art makes use of symbols and forms that are determined by artists. Regardless of the above, the goal of art, like languages is to communicate or share thoughts and ideas. Similarly, art has also evolved, and the current form of art is a result of what has been before. The different eras of art have helped to shape the current era, and artists are still borrowing from the past as they continue to adopt newer styles. One era that greatly influences the current era of art is expressionism. Expressionism embraced and continues to embrace the imaginative aspect of art. In its essence, it seeks to depict the subjectivity of the mind. It captures the emotional and abstract responses in people. Built on the above, this paper seeks to showcase that in the expressionism era, artists managed to communicate their inner vision and selves through their work: art was more of an extension of themselves and not as a means or channel of communication to the outside world.
Connection to Matisse’s Notes of a Painter
Henri Matisse was born on 31st December 1869. He died in November 1954 but not before he made sure that his name will live forever, at least in the world of art. In the world of art, Matisse is considered the most influential and significant painter from France in the 20th century. The man was the leader of the fauvist movement. When it comes to art, Matisse was known to be quite expressive, and this was evident in the way he pursued the expressiveness of color in his career. However, his connection to the paper at hand is not dependent on the above information. While his work did the talking in the expressionism era, the statement titled Notes of a Painter help to advance this paper further. With expressionism, artists communicated with their work. They let their feelings, emotions, and imaginations speak to them as they translated such communication to canvases. Matisse was well aware of the above and made it clear that he is indeed “aware that a painter’s best spokesman is his work.” This statement simply means that an artist’s work best describes the artist, including his feelings, thought process, and emotions. So, for artists, theirs is not to explain the world or share their thoughts on current affairs but to share themselves or bits of themselves with the w...