From Expressionism To Impressionism - Art Of The Individual And Society

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By Kathleen Karlsen

Themes of inner disturbance and energetic frenzy are characteristic of the Expressionist movement in art, whose chief artist was Vincent Van Gogh, a moralistic, religious Dutchman. Van Gogh's works were largely autobiographical. Other Expressionists, including the Norwegian Edward Munch and the German Kirchner Bridge group, also produced intense, confrontational images.

The subjective, personal truth of tortured feelings and private obsessions was placed before the viewer without the traditional aesthetic distance. Convoluted, undulating forms, crude drawings and shrill colors drew attention to the inner battle and the conflict between individual freedom and societal constraint. Unfortunately, the toll in nervous exhaustion exacted for the narcissistic aim of total liberation of the self was sometimes too high.

In contrast with Expressionism, the realism of the Impressionist era was based on the spontaneity of light and color in the external world in a given moment. Reality for the Impressionists was fleeting and changeable. The best an artist could hope for would be to catch and record a single glimpse. Claude Monet, the most famous of the Impressionists, demonstrated this ability brilliantly.

Monet created a series of fifteen views of haystacks, twenty paintings of the facade of the Rouen Cathedral and innumerable works based on the waterlilies, bridge and other aspects of his own garden that attested to the elusiveness of reality. Monet's skill at capturing the beauty of luminous nature was a type of documentary art. Indeed, one of the most important influences on Impressionism as a whole was the emerging scientific inquiry into color and vision.

The basic principle was that modifications in human perception of color are created when pieces of color are placed side by side. This approach reached a crescendo in the works of Georges Seurat (1859-91). The brush stroke of Monet was countered by Seurat's dot as the basic unit from which to build Impressionistic reality. Sometimes called Pointillism, Seurat's approach was slow and highly ordered.

Appropriate for landscapes and calm, stately motifs, Seurat's style was well-adapted to the desire of the new bourgeoisie for Arcadian scenes depicting civilized pleasure. Cafés, salons, boulevards, seasides and riverbanks were available for the depiction of culture seen side-by-side with the beauty of nature. Far from the Expressionist criticism of the restraining order of society, these motifs served to glorify the Edenic aspects of society. Art had come full circle in the quest to reconcile the freedom of the individual with the needs of society for order and control.

Kathleen Karlsen, MA is a professional artist, a freelance writer and design consultant residing in Bozeman, Montana. Her unique artwork and gifts for flower lovers can be found at http://www.livingartsoriginals.com - For an illustrated article on flower symbolism, see http://www.livingartsoriginals.com/infoflowersymbolism.htm - More about flower meanings are at http://www.livingartsoriginals.com/infoflowermeaning.htm

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