Liliputin -5462

Abstract expressionist painting technique is like shooting from the hip ... "
Jackson Pollock

Liliputinss. What, the heck, is this?
http://stihi.ru/2021/11/24/7101

The Term "Expressionism"
The term "Expressionism" is thought to have been coined in 1910 by Czech art historian Antonin Matejcek, who intended it to denote the opposite of Impressionism. Whereas the Impressionists sought to express the majesty of nature and the human form through paint, the Expressionists, according to Matejcek, sought only to express inner life, often via the painting of harsh and realistic subject matter. It should be noted, however, that neither Die Bruecke, nor similar sub-movements, ever referred to themselves as Expressionist, and, in the early years of the century, the term was widely used to apply to a variety of styles, including Post-Impressionism.

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Die Bilder der Br;cke-Maler zeichnen sich durch Vereinfachung der nat;rlichen Motive auf das Wesentliche aus. Die Farben der Gem;lde sind leuchtend, gro;fl;chig aufgetragen und entfernen sich bewusst von den Naturfarben. Die Br;cke-Maler sagten sich vom „Akademismus“ los und malten spontan, impulsiv und mit dynamischer Pinself;hrung Landschaft, Nat;rlichkeit und Nacktheit. Sie malten im Atelier und in der Natur. Die Br;cke-Maler waren Wegbereiter des Expressionismus.[4]



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Painting from the hip

The phrase "shooting from the hip" means to speak or act recklessly or impulsively, without careful consideration1. The expression originates from the idea of firing a gun from the hip, which is less precise and more approximate than aiming from the shoulder.

shoot from the hip", which means to speak or act rashly or impulsively, without considering the consequences

mean speaking directly and honestly, or reacting quickly without thinking

to speak in a very direct and honest way

"shoot from the hip", which means to speak or act rashly or impulsively, without considering the consequences


If you say that someone shoots from the hip, you mean that they react to situations or give their opinion very quickly, without stopping to think


People also ask
What does it mean when someone shoots from the hip?
If you say that someone shoots from the hip, you mean that they react to situations or give their opinion very quickly, without stopping to think. Judges don't have to shoot from the hip. They have the leisure to think and decide.
To shoot from the hip to fire from the hip definition and meaning

The idiom 'shoot from the hip' means to speak or act bluntly or rashly, without deliberation or prudence.


What does'shoot from the hip' mean?
It often implies making quick decisions or comments without thinking them through. Origin: The idiom 'shoot from the hip' originates from the Old West in America, where cowboys would draw and fire their guns swiftly from the hip without aiming. This method was less accurate but much faster, highlighting the idea of acting quickly without precision.



speakfluently.co
Why did a girl say he did not shoot from the hip?
They criticized his readiness to shoot from the hip. She claimed that she did not shoot from the hip. She liked to think hard and long before taking decisions. Note: You can also say that someone fires from the hip with the same meaning.
Shot from the hip - Idioms by The Free Dictionary

 His habit of shooting from the hip makes him unpredictable in negotiations.
Shoot from the hip - Meaning, Origin, and Examples - SpeakFluently


or fire from the hip to give your opinion or react to situations very quickly, without stopping to think it through properly She specifically declared that she did not shoot from the hip.


 means to act or speak impulsively without careful consideration or planning. See how to use this phrase with …


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aus der Huefte schiessen


Bedeutung:
unueberlegt S / schnell S handeln; voreilig sein S

Beispiele:
Muellpolitik eignet sich nicht f;r Schuesse aus der Huefte
Da wird ohne Ueberlegung aus der Huefte geschossen und Bewerbern ohne Lehramtsstudium angeboten, an Schulen zu unterrichten
Maenner schiessen vielfach aus der Huefte, lassen sich eher von heissen Tipps verfuehren, ohne die harten Fakten hinter solchen Empfehlungen zu pruefen
In der Umsetzung wirkte dies alles jedoch arg "aus der Huefte geschossen"

Ergaenzungen / Herkunft:

umgangssprachlich; Wer im woertlichen Sinn aus der Huefte schiesst, nimmt die Pistole aus der Halterung am Guertel und schiesst ohne Zeitverlust noch in Huefthoehe los, ohne lange zu zielen. Hier draengt sich das Klischee vom Wilden Westen auf, in dem der Colt des Cowboys "locker sitzt" und auf langes Ueberlegen verzichtet wird. Dabei wird die Redensart meist im negativen Sinn gebraucht und mit der Kritik vor ueberstuerztem und planlosen Handeln verbunden.
Sie ist Mitte des 20. Jahrhunderts entstanden Q. Moeglicherweise handelt es sich dabei um eine Entlehnung aus dem Amerikanischen: "shoot from the hip" wird hier auch redensartlich in aehnlicher Bedeutung verwendet.

Ein fr;her Beleg stammt aus dem Jahr 1964, in dem der "Spiegel" den US-amerikanischen Kommentar eines "Spiegel"-Interviews zitiert: "Die 'New York Herald Tribune': Der SPIEGEL hat ein Bild von Senator Goldwater gezeichnet, das den Eindruck grosser Aehnlichkeit vermittelt. Hier ist die Offenheit, die einen bei einer Privatperson so sehr einnimmt - hier auch die Schuesse aus der Huefte, die einen bei einem Manne der Oeffentlichkeit so sehr beunruhigen ..."



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Abstrakter Expressionismus
Der abstrakte Expressionismus ist eine nordamerikanische Kunstrichtung der modernen Malerei, die vornehmlich durch die New York School in den sp;ten 1940er bis fr;hen 1960er Jahren bekannt wurde. Ihre Hauptstr;mungen manifestierten sich im Action Painting und der Farbfeldmalerei.




Maltechniken des Action Painting: Farbauftrag links gespritzt, rechts getr;pfelt
Allen Auspr;gungen des abstrakten Expressionismus war gemeinsam, dass das Gef;hl, die Emotion und die Spontanit;t wichtiger waren als Perfektion, Vernunft und Reglementierung. Die Darstellungsweise war abstrakt, teilweise auch abstrakt-figurativ. Er ;bernahm die surrealistische Technik des Automatismus und die kubistische Idee der fl;chigen R;umlichkeit.[1]

Die Maltechniken wurden variiert und der Farbauftrag auf den Malgrund wurde mit Pinseln, Spachteln, mit der Handfl;che, mit Hilfe von durchl;cherten Beh;ltern (dripping) oder Eimern vollzogen.

Der Gr;ndungsdirektor des Museum of Modern Art in New York, Alfred Barr, charakterisierte die – nach Fauvismus und Kandinsky – zweite Str;mung abstrakter Malerei „eher intuitiv und emotional als intellektuell, ihre Formen sind eher organisch und biomorph als geometrisch, eher kurvig als rechteckig, eher dekorativ als strukturell, und in ihrer Begeisterung f;r das Mystische, Spontane und Irrationale ist sie eher romantisch als klassisch“.[2]

Namensgebung
Die Bezeichnung abstract expressionism f;r diese Kunstrichtung geht auf den langj;hrigen Kunstkritiker des New Yorker, Robert Coates, zur;ck. Er verwendete ihn anl;sslich der Besprechung der ersten umfassenden Ausstellung von Hans Hofmann 1946 in der Mortimer Brandt Gallery.

„Denn er [gemeint ist Hans Hofmann] ist sicher einer der kompromisslosesten Vertreter dessen, was einige als ‚Klecks- und Sudelschule der Malerei‘ bezeichnen und was ich, auf freundlichere Weise, Abstrakten Expressionismus getauft habe.“

– Barbara Hess, Uta Grosenick (Hrsg.): 2005, Abstrakter Expressionismus, Taschen, K;ln, S, 6.
Der j;disch-deutsche Emigrant Hans Sahl war nach eigenen Angaben dabei, als der Begriff „Abstrakter Expressionismus“ erfunden wurde: „Ich hatte ihre Anf;nge in der Cedar Bar und im White Horse Inn kennengelernt, als mein Freund, der Bildhauer Peter Grippe, mich mit einigen jungen Leuten bekannt machte, die behaupteten, man m;sse etwas Neues erfinden, etwas, das weder abstrakt noch expressionistisch w;re und doch beides zugleich. ‚Warum nicht abstrakter Expressionismus?‘ sagte ein st;mmiger, etwas bedrohlich aussehender Mann, der Jackson Pollock hie;. Man prostete einander mit Bierflaschen zu. Das war kurz nach dem Zweiten Weltkrieg. Dann griffen die Kunsth;ndler die Idee auf, und der abstrakte Expressionismus eroberte die Welt“.[3]

Varianten und Str;mungen

Karl Otto G;tz: KO 54

Josef Trattner, abstrakt-expressionistisches Weinbild, 2010
In den Vereinigten Staaten entwickelte sich, unabh;ngig von der europ;ischen Entwicklung, das Action Painting, mit Jackson Pollock als seinem Hauptvertreter, der Farbe auf die am Boden ausgebreitete Leinwand tropfte, rinnen lie; oder schleuderte (eine Technik, die auch schon Max Ernst verwendet hatte). Auch Sam Francis, Helen Frankenthaler und der fr;he Robert Rauschenberg praktizierten eine schnelle spontane Malerei. Hauptvertreter der meditativen Farbfeldmalerei (Colorfield Painting) sind Barnett Newman und Mark Rothko. Rothko malte gro;e, oft monochrom modulierte Farbfl;chen mit meditativem Charakter, die mit dem Begriff „expressionistisch“ nicht zu fassen sind, und der immer abgestritten hat, seine Bilder seien „abstrakt“.

Weitere wichtige K;nstler des abstrakten Expressionismus waren Mark Tobey, Adolph Gottlieb, Arshile Gorky, Clyfford Still, Willem de Kooning, Franz Kline und Robert Motherwell. Ad Reinhardt wird dieser Richtung ebenfalls zugerechnet, obwohl er sich davon distanzierte. Neben der Ostk;sten-Variante der New York School entstanden zwei pazifische Varianten, die California School mit Richard Diebenkorn und die Northwest School des abstrakten Expressionismus mit Mark Tobey und Morris Graves als bedeutendsten Vertretern.

Verwandt ist dem amerikanischen abstrakten Expressionismus die europ;ische abstrakte Kunst der Nachkriegszeit, die als Informel oder Tachismus bekannt wurde, wobei la tache = „der Fleck“ als Ausgangspunkt f;r den Malproze; diente. Sie stammte aus Frankreich und fand in Deutschland (vornehmlich D;sseldorf) gro;e Resonanz. Wichtige K;nstler sind Wols, Jean Fautrier, Hans Hartung, Georges Mathieu aus Frankreich und Peter Br;ning, Karl Otto G;tz, Emil Schumacher aus Deutschland. In ;sterreich manifestiert sich die Str;mung des abstrakten Expressionismus bis zum 21. Jahrhundert im Werk von Hermann Nitsch und Josef Trattner.

Entwicklung in den USA
Zweiter Weltkrieg, Judenverfolgung und die Verdammung der modernen Kunst durch die Nationalsozialisten als „Entartete Kunst“ f;hrten zu einer Immigrationswelle europ;ischer K;nstler in die USA, vor allem nach New York. Hans Hofmann er;ffnete 1933 in New York die Hofmann School of Fine Arts, Josef Albers lehrte ab 1933 am Black Mountain College. Sie ;bten dadurch starken Einfluss auf zeitgen;ssische amerikanische K;nstler aus.

Dabei handelt es sich weniger um eine Stilrichtung als ein Konzept, Kunst in spontaner Weise und ohne die Beschr;nkung durch herk;mmliche Formen auszuf;hren. Zu den f;hrenden Kr;ften der Bewegung z;hlten Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning und Mark Rothko. Die surrealistische Haltung zur freien Schaffung hatte einen bedeutenden Einfluss auf die Anf;nge des abstrakten Expressionismus, vor allem durch den abtr;nnigen Surrealisten Wolfgang Paalen, der in seiner Zeitschrift DYN aus Mexiko einen von der Quantenphysik, dem Totemismus und Kubismus neu bestimmten Raumbegriff propagierte.[4]

Peggy Guggenheims Museum und Galerie Art of This Century in New York, die von 1942 bis 1947 moderne Kunst ausstellte, war ein Treffpunkt europ;ischer surrealistischer und junger amerikanischer K;nstler und bot den wichtigsten Ausstellungsraum in der Entwicklungszeit des abstrakten Expressionismus.[5] Zu dieser Zeit stellte Barnett Newman eine Liste der gew;nschten Vertreter f;r das zu gr;ndende New Art Movement auf. Er nannte neben Gottlieb, Rothko, Pollock, Hofmann, Baziotes und Gorky auch Wolfgang Paalen. Motherwell dagegen versah er darin noch mit einem Fragezeichen.[6]

Als abstrakt expressionistisch wurden in den USA zuerst Werke des russischen Malers Wassily Kandinsky bezeichnet und zwar von Alfred H. Barr, dem ersten Direktor des New Yorker Museum of Modern Art. Maler der europ;ischen Avantgarde, die w;hrend des Zweiten Weltkriegs nach New York emigriert waren, darunter Max Ernst, Marcel Duchamp, Marc Chagall, Yves Tanguy, Piet Mondrian sowie 1947 in einem mehrmonatigen Aufenthalt Joan Mir;, belebten bei amerikanischen K;nstlern das Interesse f;r abstrakte Malerei neu und bereiteten den Boden f;r den Triumph der abstrakten Malerei in den 1940er und 1950er Jahren vor.

Diese Generation der K;nstler war von einer tiefen Fortschrittskritik gepr;gt, vor allem durch die Erfahrungen des Zweiten Weltkriegs und den Abwurf der Atombombe auf Hiroshima. Wolfgang Paalens Theaterst;ck The Beam of the Balance, eine Tragikom;die, ist eine Reflexion auf die ungebrochene Macht des Stalinschen Staatsterrorismus, die US-amerikanischen Atombombenabw;rfe auf Hiroshima und Nagasaki im Sommer 1945 und die Gefahr einer aus dem Gleichgewicht geratenen Wissenschaft im Allgemeinen. Es wurde erstmals bekannt durch eine halb;ffentliche Lesung im Hause Robert Motherwells in East Hampton im Sommer 1946.[7] Bei Vertretern des abstrakten Expressionismus wie Barnett Newman und Mark Rothko wird eine ;hnliche Haltung deutlich.

US-amerikanische K;nstler
Hans Hofmann (1880–1966)
Mark Tobey (1890–1976)
Bradley Walker Tomlin (1899–1953)
Mark Rothko (1903–1970)
Adolph Gottlieb (1903–1974)
Seymour Lipton (1903–1986)
Arshile Gorky (1904–1948)
Clyfford Still (1904–1980)
Willem de Kooning (1904–1997)
Barnett Newman (1905–1970)
Lee Krasner (1908–1984)
Franz Kline (1910–1962)
Jackson Pollock (1912–1956)
Morris Louis (1912–1962)
William Baziotes (1912–1963)
Agnes Martin (1912–2004)
Ad Reinhardt (1913–1967)
Philip Guston (1913–1980)
Conrad Marca-Relli (1913–2000)
Robert Motherwell (1915–1991)
Jon Schueler (1916–1992)
David Hare (1917–1992)
Richard Diebenkorn (1922–1993)
Theodoros Stamos (1922–1997)
Grace Hartigan (1922–2008)
Sam Francis (1923–1994)
Michael Goldberg (1924–2007)
Joan Mitchell (1925–1992)
Cy Twombly (1928–2011)
Helen Frankenthaler (1928–2011)
Semantische Verallgemeinerung
Wenn die Bezeichnung Expressionismus f;r diese Form abstrakter Malerei einen semantischen Sinn haben soll, dann muss sie auf einen inhaltlichen Anspruch verweisen, der diese Malerei von einer blo; bildhaften Konstruktion oder Formensprache abhebt. Tats;chlich will sie dar;ber hinaus eine geistig-seelische Regung oder Befindlichkeit des K;nstlers ausdr;cken und ;ber die bildnerische Darstellung dem Betrachter vermitteln. So hei;t es bei Barbara Hess: „Alle abstrakten Expressionisten wollten Emotionen und Ideen .... transportieren.“[8] Dieser k;nstlerische Anspruch steht als geistig-religi;se Botschaft am Beginn der neuzeitlichen Malerei, und er tritt, je mehr die moderne Malerei sich vom Gegenst;ndlichen l;st, nicht etwa zur;ck, sondern vermag sich im Gegenteil mit zunehmender Abstraktion potentiell um so st;rker zu entfalten, wie es bei van Gogh und dann im deutschen Expressionismus nachzuweisen ist.[9] Das mag die Vermittlung von Stimmungen und Empfindungen sein, etwa menschlicher Grundgef;hle, die Mark Rothko f;r sich beansprucht und die, wie er berichtet, die Betrachter seiner Bilder nicht selten in Tr;nen ausbrechen lie;,[10] oder den Betrachter seinen eigenen Seelenzustand ergr;nden lassen, wie es Clyfford Still postuliert hat, der aber seinerseits in seinem Werk Leben und Tod „in erschreckender Weise“ zu verbinden glaubt.[11] Der Betrachter mag die Heiterkeit, Leichtigkeit, oder auch Erhabenheit, Bedrohung nachempfinden, die sich in einem abstrakten Bild ausdr;cken l;sst. Selbst ein Werk des Informel soll noch Str;mungen aus dem Unterbewusstsein des K;nstlers auszustrahlen verm;gen – oder zumindest seine ;bersch;umende Energie, wie im Falle von Jackson Pollock.[12] Freilich: Weder der Kunstkritiker noch der K;nstler selbst sollte in ein Werk zu viel an tiefsinnigem Gehalt hineininterpretieren; vielleicht ist es auch nur, aber immerhin, der Wunsch nach einer harmonischen oder dynamischen Komposition, die schon Alexej von Jawlensky als das Ziel jedes Expressionisten bezeichnet hat[13] – in der ungegenst;ndlichen Malerei nicht anders als in der von Natur aus ungegenst;ndlichen Musik.

Mit diesem Bedeutungsgehalt andererseits ist der Begriff des abstrakten Expressionismus ;ber seine spezifisch nordamerikanische Auspr;gung hinaus als Kennzeichnung einer bestimmten Kunstrichtung, einer Malerei der ausdrucksstarken (expressiven) Abstraktion, verallgemeinerungsf;hig.

Abstrahierender Expressionismus
Mit dem Attribut „abstrahierender“ Expressionismus kann ein Wesensmerkmal des Expressionismus in der bildenden Kunst charakterisiert werden. Wenn es das Bestreben des Expressionisten ist, die gesehene oder in einem tieferen Sinn „erlebte“ gegenst;ndliche Vorlage im Lichte seiner Empfindungen zu interpretieren, bedeutet das zwangsl;ufig ein Abgehen von der naturalistischen Komposition und damit zumeist eine vereinfachende und auf das Wesentliche reduzierte Darstellung. Der K;nstler nimmt sich jede Freiheit, in Form und Farbe ;ber den Natureindruck hinauszugreifen, den Bezug zur Gegenst;ndlichkeit zu ;berh;hen oder aufzul;sen, um damit seine pers;nlichen Vorstellungen und Emotionen auszudr;cken. Sehr weit fortgeschritten ist die Verfremdung des Gegenst;ndlichen bereits um 1910 bei Expressionisten wie etwa Wassily Kandinsky und Franz Marc (die bekannten „blauen Pferde“), wo die Freude an der selbst gew;hlten Farbigkeit ganz offensichtlich den Ton angibt.  Doch bleibt das Sujet, zumeist aus Natur und Landschaft entnommen, grunds;tzlich als solches erkennbar oder als Ausgangspunkt nachvollziehbar.


Piet Mondrian, Gray Tree, 1911
In einem engeren Sinn bezeichnet der abstrahierende Expressionismus jedoch eine fortgeschrittene Entwicklungsstufe auf dem Weg zur totalen Abstraktion, zur gegenstandslosen Malerei, in der das Motiv nur noch als Vorwurf f;r ein freies Spiel mit Formen und Farben dient, dem K;nstler die Anregungen f;r sein Bem;hen um reine ;sthetik, vollkommenen Ausdruck, nachhaltige Wirkung liefert. Ein Beispiel hierf;r ist das Fr;hwerk von Piet Mondrian,[14] der zu Beginn des letzten Jahrhunderts die Figuration spielerisch ;berwindet, aber in manchen seiner Baumbilder bereits die streng geometrische Abstraktion erahnen l;sst, die ihn sp;ter ber;hmt machen sollte. Oder der fr;he Clyfford Still, der sein Werk zwei Jahrzehnte sp;ter mit einer zunehmenden Aufl;sung des gegenst;ndlichen Sujets begann und nicht zuf;llig als anerkannter Meister eines v;llig gegenstandslosen Expressionismus abschloss. Als deutscher zeitgen;ssischer Maler ist Bernd Zimmer beispielhaft, der erkl;rterma;en von der Gegenst;ndlichkeit zur reinen Farbmalerei hinstrebt.[15]

Abstrakter Expressionismus im Kalten Krieg
Der abstrakte Expressionismus wurde im Kalten Krieg als „Aush;ngeschild“ f;r den „freien Westen“ funktionalisiert. Obwohl er noch im eigenen Land erbitterte Gegner im konservativen Lager hatte, die abstrakte Kunst als unamerikanisch diffamierten, sollte er im internationalen Ausstellungsbetrieb f;r ein „modernes, liberales Amerika“ werben.[16]

Anl;sslich des Pariser „Kongresses f;r kulturelle Freiheit“ 1952 zeigte das Museum of Modern Art eine Ausstellung mit Meisterwerken des abstrakten Expressionismus. Der Kurator der Ausstellung verwies darauf, dass hier Werke gezeigt w;rden, „die in totalit;ren Systemen wie dem Deutschland der Nazi-Zeit oder dem heutigen Sowjet-Ru;land und seinen Satelliten nicht h;tten entstehen geschweige denn ausgestellt werden k;nnen.“[17] Diese Feststellung stellt sich als nicht ganz richtig heraus, wie es weiter unten gezeigt werden kann.

1953 wurden zw;lf zeitgen;ssische US-amerikanische Maler und Bildhauer in Europa vorgestellt, darunter die Altmeister John Marin, Stuart Davis, Edward Hopper und der Sozialist Ben Shahn. Abstrakt-expressionistische Werke machten sogar nur ein Viertel der Ausstellung Modern Art in the United States aus der Sammlung des New Yorker Museum of Modern Art aus, die 1956 in Europa zu sehen war. Erst 1958/59er triumphierte die neueste Malerei, The New American Painting zeigte einundachtzig Bilder von siebzehn abstrakt-expressionistischen K;nstlern in acht westeurop;ischen Metropolen und anschlie;end im Museum of Modern Art in New York. Die von Dorothy Canning Miller, der einflussreichen Kuratorin des MoMA, zusammengestellte Show ver;nderte das Bild Europas von der Kunst der USA. Erm;glicht worden war sie durch die Unterst;tzung der Rockefeller Foundation und das Engagement von Blanchette Ferry Rockefeller. In Rom, Basel, Amsterdam, Br;ssel, Paris, Berlin und London und auf der documenta II in Kassel (1959) war die Jackson Pollock-Retrospektive zu sehen, die Frank O’Hara f;r die 4. Biennale von S;o Paulo (1957) zusammengestellt hatte. In Kassel wurden au;erdem die Arbeiten aller K;nstler der New American Painting-Show und weiterer Amerikaner ausgestellt, insgesamt 144 Arbeiten von 44 K;nstlern.

Nach Karl Eimermacher[18] berichtet ein amerikanischer Journalist von den Weltjugendfestspielen in Moskau 1957 „Unsere (amerikanischen K;nstler, K.E.) meinten die Russen mit einer Welle von aggressiven Abstraktionen zu verbl;ffen. Man ging vom letzten Schrei avantgardistischer Richtungen aus und hoffte, mit all diesem Eklektizismus den sozialistischen Realismus k.o. zu schlagen. Ununterbrochen produzierte man Bilder, wie am Flie;band. War eine Leinwand fertig, griff man schon zur n;chsten. Die Russen waren wie erschlagen. Ein solches Tempo hatten sie nicht erwartet. Den Z;glingen der Akademie blieb nichts anderes ;brig als ihre Position mit Worten zu verteidigen. Man stritt heftig. Wir wurden wegen der Vernachl;ssigung sozialer Probleme angegriffen, wohingegen wir einwendeten: Zuerst m;sse man lernen, mit dem Material umzugehen! So ging es, bis ein merkw;rdig aussehender Bursche mit zwei Eimern Farbe auftauchte, die er sich bei den gelangweilt zusehenden Anstreichern zusammen mit einem an einem Stock h;ngenden Scheuerlappen geliehen hatte. Als er seine Leinwand ausgebreitet hatte, kippte er – soweit dies die R;umlichkeiten zulie;en – beide Eimer ;ber sie aus, sprang mitten in die blau-gr;ne Pf;tze und begann verzweifelt, mit dem Schrubber zu arbeiten. Alles dauerte nicht l;nger als zehn Sekunden. Wir erstarrten vor Begeisterung. Zu unseren F;;en lichtete sich ein gro;es Frauenportr;t, virtuos gestaltet, raffiniert und mit einem feinf;hligen Verst;ndnis. Der Bursche blinzelte einem der zu Stein gewordenen Amerikanern zu, klatschte ihm mit der v;llig verschmierten Handfl;che auf den Hintern und sagt: ‚H;rt auf, euch mit Malerei zu besch;ftigen, ich bringe euch erst mal Zeichnen bei.‘“[19]

In ihrem Buch: Who Paid the Piper. The CIA and the Cultural Cold War vermerkte die britische Historikerin und Journalistin Frances Stonor Saunders (* 1966), dass die CIA Jackson Pollock und andere abstrakte Expressionisten subventionierte. Dies geschah im Wege des Congress for Cultural Freedom und in ;bereinstimmung mit der F;rderungspolitik der Rockefeller Foundation und der Ford Foundation. W;hrend Stalin in seinem unmittelbaren Machtbereich den sozialistischen Realismus forcierte und in Paris linke Intellektuelle wie Jean-Paul Sartre und Pablo Picasso die Kulturszene dominierten, weiters der mexikanische Muralismus um Diego Rivera und David Alfaro Siqueiros, der in der ;ra der Gro;en Depression, des Amerikanischen Regionalismus und der New Deal Wandmalerei auf die USA ausgestrahlt hatte, ebenfalls der KP-Seite zugeneigt war, bot sich nach dem Krieg der abstrakte Expressionismus auch im zerst;rten Europa als Demonstration politischer und k;nstlerischer Freiheit (ohne sozialkritische Botschaft) an. W;hrend die Kunststr;mung als f;rderungsw;rdig im Sinne der Soft Power galt, waren die individuellen K;nstler nicht unbedingt systemkonform.[20]

Welche Ersch;tterung die New American Painting Show hervorrief, ist auch an dem Melbourner Antipodean Manifesto einer Gruppe figurativer Maler und des marxistischen Kunsthistorikers Bernard Smith gegen die amerikanisch dominierte Abstraktion abzulesen.

Kunstmarkt
Unter den Galeristen der abstrakten Expressionisten sind neben Peggy Guggenheim die K;nstlerin Betty Parsons die Kunsth;ndler Charles Egan, Samuel Kootz und Sidney Janis hervorzuheben.[21]

Bilder des Abstrakten Expressionismus erfreuen sich einer steigenden Nachfrage von privaten Kunstsammlern, w;hrend staatliche Museen entsprechende Ank;ufe kaum noch finanzieren k;nnen. Seit der Jahrtausendwende erzielen Bilder von Willem de Kooning, Mark Rothko, Clyfford Still oder Barnett Newman auf Auktionen Spitzenpreise im zweistelligen Millionenbereich. Da diese Bilder ein enges, geschlossenes Marktsegment repr;sentieren, die Anzahl der betreffenden K;nstler und Objekte begrenzt bleibt, erfreuen sie sich von Seiten der K;ufer eines Vertrauens in stetig wachsende Preise und sind daher beliebte Spekulationsobjekte, da man auf hohe Gewinne hoffen kann.

Ausstellungen
2016: Abstract Expressionism, Royal Academy of Arts, London. Katalog.[22]
Siehe auch
American Abstract Artists (Vorl;ufer und einige ;berschneidungen)
New York School (der Abstrakte Expressionismus in New York)
Action Painting, Drip Painting, All-over-Painting
Black Paintings (in den USA)
Neo-Dada, Pop Art (als Gegenbewegung)
Tachismus, Informel (Lyrischer und Abstrakter Expressionismus in Europa)
Lyrische Abstraktion (Europa und sp;te Nachfolger in den USA)
Nachmalerische Abstraktion, Farbfeldmalerei (als direkte und indirekte Weiterentwicklungen)
Literatur
David Anfam: Abstract Expressionism. World of Art. Thames and Hudson, London 1990, ISBN 978-0-50020243-2.
Stephen Polcari: Abstract Expressionism and the Modern Experience. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1991.
Ausstellungskatalog: Le grand geste! Informel und abstrakter Expressionismus 1946–1964. museum kunst palast, D;sseldorf, 10. April bis 1. August 2010.
Marcia Bystryn: Art Galleries as Gatekeepers: The Case of the Abstract Expressionists. In: Social Research. Jg. 45/1978, S. 390–408.
Barbara Hess/Uta Grosenick (Hrsg.): Abstrakter Expressionismus. Taschen, K;ln 2005, ISBN 3-8228-2967-6.
Lee Krasner, Elaine de Kooning u. a.: Abstrakter Expressionismus in Amerika. Ausstellungskatalog. ISBN 978-3-89422-097-6.
Frances Stonor Saunders: Wer die Zeche zahlt… Der CIA und die Kultur im Kalten Krieg. Siedler, Berlin 2001, ISBN 978-3-88680-695-9.
David Anfam: Abstract Expressionism. Royal Academy of Arts, London 2016, ISBN 978-1-910350-31-7.
Alexander Eiling, Felix Kr;mer (Hrsg.): Making van Gogh. Hirmer Verlag, M;nchen 2019, ISBN 978-3-941399-96-9.
Weblinks
Commons: Abstrakter Expressionismus – Sammlung von Bildern, Videos und Audiodateien
Literatur von und ;ber Abstrakter Expressionismus im Katalog der Deutschen Nationalbibliothek
Einzelnachweise
 Edward Lucie-Smith: DuMont’s Lexikon der Bildenden Kunst. DuMont, K;ln 1990, S. 7 f.
 Zitiert nach Barbara Hess, Uta Grosenick (Hrsg.): Abstrakter Expressionismus. Taschen, K;ln 2005, S. 7.
 Hans Sahl: Das Exil im Exil. Sammlung Luchterhand, 1994, S. 161.
 In seiner Theorie des beobachterabh;ngigen M;glichkeitsraumes, die der abstrakten Malerei in den vierziger Jahren neue Schwungkraft und ein einheitliches, neues Weltbild vermittelte, verarbeitete Paalen ebenso Erkenntnisse der Quantenphysik, wie eigenwillige Interpretationen der totemistische Weltauffassung und der r;umliche Strukturen indianischer Malerei der Nord-West-K;ste.
 The Oxford Dictionary of Art – Abstract Expressionism (Memento vom 22. Juni 2008 im Internet Archive) enotes.com, abgerufen am 10. Mai 2015.
 s. Barnett Newmans Notizen, in denen er seine organisierenden Gedanken zu America’s new art movement ausf;hrt, enth;lt eine handgeschriebene Liste der men in the new movement. [Barnett Newman Foundation archive 18/103]
 Amy Winter: Interview of Luchita Mullican, Santa Monica, 1 May 1994. (Archives of American Art, New York)
 Barbara Hess: Abstrakter Expressionismus. Verlag Taschen, Berlin 2017. ISBN 978-3-8365-0500-0.
 Alexander Eiling: in Making van Gogh (Alexander Eiling und Felix Kr;mer, Hrsg.). Hirmer Verlag, M;nchen 2019. ISBN 978-3-941399-96-9
 David Anfam: Abstract Expressionism, Royal Academy of Arts, London 2016, Seite 22. ISBN 978-1-910350-31-7
 David Anfam: Abstract Expressionism, Seite 25, 44
 David Anfam: Abstract Expressionism, Seite 25, 37
 Alexander Eiling: in Making van Gogh, Seite 123
 Fondation Beyeler, Mondrian Evolution, in: Artinside, Basel 2022.
 Anuschka Koos, Gespr;ch mit Bernd Zimmer, Ausstellungskatalog Mannheim 2006, S. 99.
 Barbara Hess; Uta Grosenick (Hrsg.): Abstrakter Expressionismus. Taschen, K;ln 2005, S. 17.
 Rolf Wedewer: Die Malerei des Informel. Weltverlust und Ich-Behauptung. Deutscher Kunstverlag, M;nchen, 2007, S. 30f. ISBN 3-422-06560-1
 Karl Eimermacher: Das Leben als Kunst - Die Kunst als Leben (Anmerkungen zum Werk Anatolij Zverevs). Katalog der Galerie Bayer, Bietigheim-Bissingen, 1994, S. 29f.
 Zitat nach I. Dudinskij: Die Entdeckung eines K;nstlers. Ogonek, Nr. 33, 15. bis 22. August 1987, S. 24 (russisch)
 culture\u002Fauthor\u002Falastair-sooke: Was modern art a weapon of the CIA? In: bbc.com. 4. Oktober 2016, abgerufen am 4. Februar 2024 (englisch).
 Barbara Hess; Uta Grosenick (Hrsg.): Abstrakter Expressionismus. Taschen, K;ln 2005, S. 12.
 Farbtrunkene Breitwandbilder fordern zum Duell in FAZ vom 4. November 2016,

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https://www.moma.org/s/ge/curated_ge/chronology.html

Portraiture underwent a dramatic transformation in the modern era, perhaps most definitively in the hands of the Expressionists. Rather than flattering the sitter or focusing on external appearances, Expressionist portraits explore "inner feelings" and issues of the psyche.

Such highly distilled images are marked by provocatively exaggerated features, gestures, and expressions. Formal distortions and an emphasis on the physical characteristics of a chosen medium further heightened such effects.

Expressionist Portraits
In general, 20th century artists were less interested in the classical hierarchy of genres, and more concerned with how to represent reality in an age of world war and moral uncertainty. Also, advances in photography and video made formal portrait art appear somewhat anachronistic. Even so, painters from a number of modern art movements included portraits in their repertoire.

In the aftermath of Impressionism and Post-Impressionism, the two most important art movements to emerge at the beginning of the century, were Fauvism, and Expressionism. These two styles of painting were very similar, in that each downgraded the traditional emphasis placed on drawing - especially figure drawing - in favour of colour and overall impact. In general, unlike Impressionists, expressionist portrait painters did not seek to imitate or replicate nature. Instead, they sought to express their emotional response to what they saw, using garish colours, distorted forms and caricature-like imagery. See also: History of Expressionist Painting (c.1880-1930).



Paul Guillaume, by Modigliani.
See also: Greatest Portrait Paintings.





Other Paintings

Georges Rouault: Self-Portrait (1911)
Private Collection.

Woman With a Hat (1905), by
Henri Matisse, leader of the
Fauvists. One of the great
expressionist paintings,
this was the picture that created
a major scandal at the 1905
Salon d'Automne, in Paris.



Expressionist Portraiture

"Expressionism" is a rather vague term which describes any style of art which distorts reality in order to convey a heightened awareness or sensibility of the subject. It is commonly used to refer to a group of early twentieth century German and other European painters, who moved beyond Fauvism in their bold (sometimes dramatic, even haunting) and garish portrayals of scenes and people. It embraces the three principal German Expressionist groups - the Dresden-based Die Brucke (the Bridge); the Munich-based Der Blaue Reiter (Blue Rider); and the post-war Die Neue Sachlichkeit - as well as certain artists of the Paris School (Ecole de Paris), such as Soutine, Rouault and Modigliani.

Expressionist portraiture - which really began with the self portraits of Vincent Van Gogh and the Tahitian works by Gauguin (like Girl With A Fan, 1902) - is exemplified by: (1) the sensual Madonna (1894) by Edvard Munch; (2) the Fauvist portraiture of Henri Matisse and Andre Derain; (3) the bizarre series of silhouette style portraits by the self-destructive Austrian artist Egon Schiele, including: Self-Portrait Nude (1910), Portrait of Eduard Kosmack (c.1912), Portrait of Albert Paris von G;tersloh (1918); (4) the masterpiece Head of a Woman (1910) by Alexei von Jawlensky; (5) Portrait of Oscar Miestschaninoff (1923) and Portrait of Madeleine Castaing (1929) by the Jewish-Russian painter Chaim Soutine; (6) the decadent Portrait of the Journalist Sylvia von Harden (1926) by Otto Dix; (7) Woman in a Black Hat (1908) and Le Coquelicot (The Corn Poppy) (1919), by Kees van Dongen; (8) Portrait of Herwarth Walden (1910) and Portrait of Frau Reuther (1921), by Oskar Kokoschka; (9) the stained-glass-like portraits of Georges Rouault; and (10) the sublime portraiture of Modigliani (1884-1920).


WORLD'S TOP PORTRAITURE
For the greatest portraitists
see: Best Portrait Artists.

CLASSIFICATION OF THE ARTS
For a guide to the different forms
of fine and decorative arts,
please see: TYPES OF ART.

The Expressionist Amedeo Modigliani

Belonging to no art movement other than the Ecole de Paris, the tubercular poverty stricken drug-addict Amedeo Modigliani had a unique painting style which exhibited Expressionist, Cubist and Matisse-like tendencies. Renowned for his portraits and nudes, recognizable by their olive skins, elongated noses and necks, flat faces and almond-shaped eyes, Modigliani's early death at the age of 36 deprived the art world of a monumental talent.

Among Modigliani's finest portraiture are the works: Portrait of Madam Pompadour (1915) Art Institute of Chicago; Portrait of Moise Kisling (1915) Private Collection; Portrait of Juan Gris (1915) Metropolitan; Bride and Groom (1916) MOMA, New York; Portrait of Leopold Zborowski (1916) Private Collection; Portrait of Jeanne Hebuterne (1918) Metropolitan Museum of Art; and Girl with Braids (1918) Nagoya City Art Museum. He also painted several portraits of his art dealer Paul Guillaume (1891-1934).

For an explanation of 19th or 20th century portraiture, please see: Analysis of Modern Paintings (1800-2000).

Abstract Expressionist Portraiture

The term Abstract Expressionism denotes the modern American art movement which emerged out of the Second World War. Abstract and highly personal, its portraits were few and far between. One of the leading Abstract Expressionist figure painters was Willem de Kooning (1904-97), whose Woman series - begun by works like Seated Woman (1944, Metropolitan Museum of Art) - included Marilyn Monroe (1954).

The next article covers Portraits by Picasso.

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Expressionism
artistic style
Written and fact-checked by
Last Updated: Oct 22, 2024 • Article History
Related Artists: Vincent van Gogh Oskar Kokoschka Edvard Munch August Strindberg Alban Berg
On the Web: International Journal of Research Publication and Reviews - The Rise of Expressionism: When Literature Meets Art in History (Oct. 22, 2024)
Expressionism, artistic style in which the artist seeks to depict not objective reality but rather the subjective emotions and responses that objects and events arouse within a person. The artist accomplishes this aim through distortion, exaggeration, primitivism, and fantasy and through the vivid, jarring, violent, or dynamic application of formal elements. In a broader sense Expressionism is one of the main currents of art in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and its qualities of highly subjective, personal, spontaneous self-expression are typical of a wide range of modern artists and art movements. Expressionism can also be seen as a permanent tendency in Germanic and Nordic art from at least the European Middle Ages, particularly in times of social change or spiritual crisis, and in this sense it forms the converse of the rationalist and classicizing tendencies of Italy and later of France.


Edvard Munch's The Scream, explained
Edvard Munch's The Scream, explainedThe Scream is one of the most familiar images in modern art.
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More specifically, Expressionism as a distinct style or movement refers to a number of German artists, as well as Austrian, French, and Russian ones, who became active in the years before World War I and remained so throughout much of the interwar period.

Birth and development
Vincent van Gogh: The Starry Night
Vincent van Gogh: The Starry NightThe Starry Night, oil on canvas by Vincent van Gogh, 1889; in the Museum of Modern Art, New York City.
The roots of the German Expressionist school lay in the works of Vincent van Gogh, Edvard Munch, and James Ensor, each of whom in the period 1885–1900 evolved a highly personal painting style. These artists used the expressive possibilities of colour and line to explore dramatic and emotion-laden themes, to convey the qualities of fear, horror, and the grotesque, or simply to celebrate nature with hallucinatory intensity. They broke away from the literal representation of nature in order to express more subjective outlooks or states of mind.


Emil Nolde: Dance Around the Golden Calf
Emil Nolde: Dance Around the Golden CalfDance Around the Golden Calf, oil painting by Emil Nolde, 1910; in the Bayerische Staatsgemaldesammlungen, Munich.
The second and principal wave of Expressionism began about 1905, when a group of German artists led by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner formed a loose association called Die Br;cke (“The Bridge”). The group included Erich Heckel, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, and Fritz Bleyl. These painters were in revolt against what they saw as the superficial naturalism of academic Impressionism. They wanted to reinfuse German art with a spiritual vigour they felt it lacked, and they sought to do this through an elemental, highly personal and spontaneous expression. Die Br;cke’s original members were soon joined by the Germans Emil Nolde, Max Pechstein, and Otto M;ller. The Expressionists were influenced by their predecessors of the 1890s and were also interested in African wood carvings and the works of such Northern European medieval and Renaissance artists as Albrecht D;rer, Matthias Gr;newald, and Albrecht Altdorfer. They were also aware of Neo-Impressionism, Fauvism, and other recent movements.

Max Pechstein: Indian and Woman
Max Pechstein: Indian and WomanIndian and Woman, oil on canvas by Max Pechstein, 1910; in the Saint Louis Art Museum, St. Louis, Missouri.
The German Expressionists soon developed a style notable for its harshness, boldness, and visual intensity. They used jagged, distorted lines; rough, rapid brushwork; and jarring colours to depict urban street scenes and other contemporary subjects in crowded, agitated compositions notable for their instability and their emotionally charged atmosphere. Many of their works express frustration, anxiety, disgust, discontent, violence, and generally a sort of frenetic intensity of feeling in response to the ugliness, the crude banality, and the possibilities and contradictions that they discerned in modern life. Woodcuts, with their thick jagged lined and harsh tonal contrasts, were one of the favourite media of the German Expressionists.


Color pastels, colored chalk, colorful chalk. Hompepage blog 2009, arts and entertainment, history and society
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Egon Schiele: Prone Young Woman with Black Stocking
Egon Schiele: Prone Young Woman with Black StockingProne Young Woman with Black Stocking, gouache, watercolour, and pencil on paper by Egon Schiele, 1913. 30.8 cm ; 48.4 cm.
The works of Die Br;cke artists stimulated Expressionism in other parts of Europe. Oskar Kokoschka and Egon Schiele of Austria adopted their tortured brushwork and angular lines, and Georges Rouault and Chaim Soutine in France each developed painting styles marked by intense emotional expression and the violent distortion of figural subject matter. The painter Max Beckmann, the graphic artist K;the Kollwitz, and the sculptors Ernst Barlach and Wilhelm Lehmbruck, all of Germany, also worked in Expressionist modes. The artists belonging to the group known as Der Blaue Reiter (“The Blue Rider”) are sometimes regarded as Expressionists, although their art is generally lyrical and abstract, less overtly emotional, more harmonious, and more concerned with formal and pictorial problems than that of Die Br;cke artists.

Chaim Soutine: Side of Beef
Chaim Soutine: Side of BeefSide of Beef, oil on canvas by Chaim Soutine, c. 1925; in the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo.
Expressionism was a dominant style in Germany in the years immediately following World War I, where it suited the postwar atmosphere of cynicism, alienation, and disillusionment. Some of the movement’s later practitioners, such as George Grosz and Otto Dix, developed a more pointed, socially critical blend of Expressionism and realism known as the Neue Sachlichkeit (“New Objectivity”). As can be seen from such labels as Abstract Expressionism and Neo-Expressionism, the spontaneous, instinctive, and highly emotional qualities of Expressionism have been shared by several subsequent art movements in the 20th century.

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https://www.theartstory.org/movement/expressionism/

Summary of Expressionism
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-19th-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 classic phase of the Expressionist movement lasted from approximately 1905 to 1920 and spread throughout Europe. Its example would later powerfully inform many individuals, and groups such as: Abstract Expressionism, Neo-Expressionism, and The School of London.


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Key Ideas & Accomplishments
The arrival of Expressionism announced new standards in the creation and judgment of art. Art was now meant to come forth from within the artist, rather than from a depiction of the external visual world, and the standard for assessing the quality of a work of art became the character of the artist's feelings rather than an analysis of the composition.
Expressionist artists often employed swirling, swaying, and exaggeratedly executed brushstrokes in the depiction of their subjects. These techniques were meant to convey the turgid emotional state of the artist reacting to the anxieties of the modern world.
Through their confrontation with the urban world of the early-20th century, Expressionist artists developed a powerful mode of social criticism in their serpentine figural renderings and bold colors. Their representations of the modern city included alienated individuals - a psychological by-product of recent urbanization - as well as prostitutes, who were used to comment on capitalism's role in the emotional distancing of individuals within cities.
Key Artists
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner Biography, Art & Analysis
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner
Overview, Artworks, and Biography
Wassily Kandinsky Biography, Art & Analysis
Wassily Kandinsky
Overview, Artworks, and Biography
K;the Kollwitz Biography, Art & Analysis
K;the Kollwitz
Overview, Artworks, and Biography
Paul Klee Biography, Art & Analysis
Paul Klee
Overview, Artworks, and Biography

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Overview of Expressionism
Detail of <i>Self-Portrait with Cigarette</i> (1895) by Edvard Munch
On a walk he took with two friends at sunset, Edvard Munch described how "suddenly, the sky turned as red as blood .. Tongues of fire and blood stretched over the bluish black fjord. My friends went on walking, while I lagged behind, shivering with fear. Then I heard the enormous, infinite scream of nature." Expressed in his painting The Scream (1893), his emphasis upon intense inner experience set the path for Expressionism, defined by Ernst Kirchner as mirroring "the sensations of a man of our time."

Beginnings and Development
Concepts, Trends, & Related Topics
Later Developments and Legacy

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Artworks and Artists of Expressionism
Progression of Art
Edvard Munch: The Scream (1893)
1893
The Scream
Artist: Edvard Munch

Throughout his artistic career, Munch focused on scenes of death, agony, and anxiety in distorted and emotionally charged portraits, all themes and styles that would be adopted by the Expressionists. Here, in Munch's most famous painting, he depicts the battle between the individual and society. The setting of The Scream was suggested to the artist while walking along a bridge overlooking Oslo; as Munch recalls, "the sky turned as red as blood. I stopped and leaned against the fence...shivering with fear. Then I heard the enormous, infinite scream of nature." Although Munch did not observe the scene as rendered in his painting, The Scream evokes the jolting emotion of the encounter and exhibits a general anxiety toward the tangible world. The representation of the artist's emotional response to a scene would form the basis of the Expressionists' artistic interpretations. The theme of individual alienation, as represented in this image would persist throughout the 20th century, captivating Expressionist artists as a central feature of modern life.

Tempera and crayon on cardboard - National Museum, Oslo

Wassily Kandinsky: Der Blaue Reiter (1903)

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1903
Der Blaue Reiter
Artist: Wassily Kandinsky

This breakthrough canvas is a deceptively simple image - a lone rider racing across a landscape - yet it represents a decisive moment in Kandinsky's developing pictorial language. Here, the sun-dappled hillside reveals a keen interest in contrasts of light and dark as well as movement and stillness, all major themes throughout his oeuvre. Constituting a link between Post-Impressionism and the burgeoning Expressionist movements, Kandinsky's canvas became the emblem of the expressive possibilities embraced by the Munich avant-garde. This is the eponymous work from which the collective derived its name in 1911.

Oil on canvas - Private Collection

Oskar Kokoschka: Hans Tietze and Erica Tietze-Conrat (1909)
Artwork Images
1909
Hans Tietze and Erica Tietze-Conrat
Artist: Oskar Kokoschka

The esteemed art historians Hans Tietze and Erica Tietze-Conrat commissioned this portrait by Kokoschka for their art collection. The colorful background and concentrated gestures of the figures represent the couple as "closed personalities so full of tension," as the artist once called them. As in many of his portraits, Kokoschka focuses on the inner drama of his subjects, here, using the couple's nervous hands as a focal point of their anxiety. His rendering depicts the way the artist perceived the couple's psyche, not necessarily their physical, naturalistic appearances. Kokoschka's emotional representation is emblematic of the Expressionist style. The swirling, abstract colors that obscure the background and emerge around them are characteristic of Kokoschka's frenetic, depthless renderings of space throughout his oeuvre.

Oil on canvas - The Museum of Modern Art, New York

Franz Marc: Large Blue Horses (1911)

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1911
Large Blue Horses
Artist: Franz Marc

The painter, printmaker, and watercolorist Marc was a key member of Der Blaue Reiter, and is known for his use of animal symbolism. This canvas belonged to a series of works that centered on the theme of horses, which he regarded as emblems of spiritual renewal. The lush colors, fracturing of space, and geometric forms show the influence of Cubism and Robert Delaunay's Orphism. However, while Marc was influenced by his contemporaries, his emphasis on fantastic subjects derived from the material world, such as the blue horses from this 1911 painting, is unique to his practice. For the artist, the movement away from realistic depiction represented a turn towards the spiritual, the emotional, and the authentic. As with many Expressionists, color was symbolic rather than descriptive for Marc. He drew upon the emotive qualities of his palette to convey his vision of the spiritual blue beasts.

Oil on canvas - Walker Art Center, Minneapolis

Karl Schmidt-Rottluff: Houses at Night (1912)
Artwork Images
1912
Houses at Night
Artist: Karl Schmidt-Rottluff

After co-founding Die Br;cke in Dresden, Schmidt-Rottluff moved to the booming city of Berlin, where he painted this abstracted rendering of a city block. The buildings stagger apart from each other at odd angles over an eerily empty street, evoking the alienation of modern urban society. Even though Schmidt-Rottluff painted Houses at Night, the influence of woodblock printing is clear; the abstracted, minimalist shapes have a stark and graphic quality similar to the artist's many woodblock works. Here, the bright colors add to the primitive shapes of the canvas, imbuing the scene with an underlying sense of unease and estrangement. The pervasive disquiet was the essence of the modern, urban realm for Expressionists. The turn toward jagged forms and a bright, acidic palette emphasized the artist's individual, avant-garde interpretation of the street scene.

Oil on canvas - The Museum of Modern Art, New York

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner: Street, Berlin (1913)

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1913
Street, Berlin
Artist: Ernst Ludwig Kirchner

Kirchner is renowned for his many Berlin street scenes, and this particular work is perhaps his most well known from that category, if not his entire catalog. His jagged, angular brushstrokes, acidic colors, and elongated forms all charge the street atmosphere on the canvas and achieve something very rebellious for its time and exemplify the stylistic break with tradition that the members of Die Br;cke sought. As a founding member of the group, Kirchner set out to establish a new order of painting, one that visibly renounced Impressionistic tendencies and the need to accurately portray figurative forms. In Street, Berlin, Kirchner created a stunningly askew rendition of an alienated, urban street procession. Without regard for realistic depiction of form, he bent and contorted his narrow figures like they were blades of grass in a meadow. Another uniquely modern feature of Street, Berlin was Kirchner's choice to position two prostitutes (identifiable by their signature plumed hats) as the painting's (somewhat off-center) focal point.

Oil on canvas - The Museum of Modern Art, New York

Egon Schiele: Sitting Woman with Legs Drawn Up (1917)
1917
Sitting Woman with Legs Drawn Up
Artist: Egon Schiele

Schiele, one of the central figures of Austrian Expressionism, is known for his jarring and oftentimes grotesque renderings of overt sexuality. Here, Schiele draws his wife, Edith Schiele, partially dressed, her body contorted in an unnatural position. Her bold and intense expression assertively confronts the viewer and directly contradicts the artistic standards of passive feminine beauty. Although unabashedly controversial throughout his lifetime, Schiele was recognized for his skilled draftsmanship and his use of sinewy lines to evoke the decadence and debauchery of modern Austria. The emotive quality of Schiele's line-work and color firmly places him in the Expressionist movement. He rendered images as he interpreted them, not as they appeared to the outside world.

Oil on canvas - National Gallery, Prague

Erich Heckel: Portrait of a Man (1919)
1919
Portrait of a Man
Artist: Erich Heckel

A founding member of Die Br;cke, Heckel experimented widely with woodblock printing, a favorite medium of many Expressionists, and was originally attracted to the technique for its raw emotionalism and stark aesthetic, as well as its traditional German heritage. While many of his works depict nudes and scenes of city life, Heckel takes up a more introspective subject in this somber self-portrait from 1919. The figure's drawn face, distorted jaw, and weary eyes, which seem to gaze distractedly into the distance, highlight the individual's spiritual, psychological, and physical fatigue. Rather than create a naturalistic self-portrait, Heckel indicates the general spirit of his time and the national weariness of his age, common themes in Expressionist art.

Woodcut - The Museum of Modern Art, New York

Chaim Soutine: Mad Woman (1920)
1920
Mad Woman
Artist: Chaim Soutine

Soutine painted two known versions of Mad Woman (using a different woman for each), and this was unquestionably the darkest of the pair. His violent brushstrokes and contorted lines communicate an almost unnerving tension, but nevertheless do not deny his subject a rich depth of character. Soutine invited viewers to observe the subject closely, to gaze into her eyes and study her asymmetrical face and form. In many ways, this painting embodies the essence of the Expressionist style; Mad Woman visibly vibrates, contorts, shifts, pushes, and pulls, providing the viewer with Soutine's vision of the inner torment of his sitter. In part, it redefined the genre of portrait painting. Simply by painting this mysterious (and possibly dangerous) woman up close rather than from a distance, Soutine established himself as an empathetic figure, but also as a daring visionary.

Oil on canvas - National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo



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Beginnings of Expressionism
With the turn of the century in Europe, shifts in artistic styles and vision erupted as a response to the major changes in the atmosphere of society. New technologies and massive urbanization efforts altered the individual's worldview, and artists reflected the psychological impact of these developments by moving away from a realistic representation of what they saw toward an emotional and psychological rendering of how the world affected them. The roots of Expressionism can be traced to certain Post-Impressionist artists like Edvard Munch in Norway, as well as Gustav Klimt of the Vienna Secession.

Edvard Munch in Norway
Edvard Munch's <i>Anxiety</i> (1894) is part of the body of works that influenced the start of Expressionism
The late-19th-century Norwegian Edvard Munch emerged as an important source of inspiration for the Expressionists. His vibrant and emotionally charged works opened up new possibilities for introspective expression. In particular, Munch's frenetic canvases expressed the anxiety of the individual within the newly modernized European society; his famous painting The Scream (1893) evidenced the conflict between spirituality and modernity as a central theme of his work. By 1905 Munch's work was well known within Germany and he was spending much of his time there as well, putting him in direct contact with the Expressionists. In addition to Munch, the Flemish James Ensor was also an early influence that was studied and built upon.

Gustav Klimt in Austria
The Vienna Secession publication Ver Sacrum (cover of one issue shown here) that spead the innovative ideas of the movement throughout Europe.
Another figure in the late-19th century that had an impact upon the development of Expressionism was Gustav Klimt, who worked in the Austrian Art Nouveau style and led the Vienna Secession. Klimt's lavish mode of rendering his subjects in a bright palette, elaborately patterned surfaces, and elongated bodies was a step toward the exotic colors, gestural brushwork, and jagged forms of the later Expressionists. Klimt was a mentor to painter Egon Schiele, and introduced him to the works of Edvard Munch and Vincent van Gogh, among others, at an exhibition of their work in 1909.

The Advent of Expressionism in Germany
Der Blaue Reiter group published their own almanac that was in print until the start of World War I. This image was designed by Wassily Kandinsky.
Although it included various artists and styles, Expressionism first emerged in 1905, when a group of four German architecture students who desired to become painters - Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Fritz Bleyl, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, and Erich Heckel - formed the group Die Br;cke (The Bridge) in the city of Dresden. A few years later, in 1911, a like-minded group of young artists formed Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider) in Munich, after the rejection of Wassily Kandinsky's painting The Last Judgment (1910) from a local exhibition. In addition to Kandinsky, the group included Franz Marc, Paul Klee, and August Macke, among others, all of whom made up the loosely associated group.

The Term "Expressionism"
The term "Expressionism" is thought to have been coined in 1910 by Czech art historian Antonin Matejcek, who intended it to denote the opposite of Impressionism. Whereas the Impressionists sought to express the majesty of nature and the human form through paint, the Expressionists, according to Matejcek, sought only to express inner life, often via the painting of harsh and realistic subject matter. It should be noted, however, that neither Die Br;cke, nor similar sub-movements, ever referred to themselves as Expressionist, and, in the early years of the century, the term was widely used to apply to a variety of styles, including Post-Impressionism.

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Expressionism: Concepts, Styles, and Trends
Die Br;cke: Kirchner, Schmidt-Rottluff, Heckel, and Bleyl
Influenced by artists such as Munch, van Gogh, and Ensor, the members of the Dresden-based Die Br;cke group sought to convey raw emotion through provocative images of modern society. They depicted scenes of city dwellers, prostitutes, and dancers in the city's streets and nightclubs, presenting the decadent underbelly of German society. In works such as Kirchner's Street, Berlin (1913), they emphasized the alienation inherent to modern society and the loss of spiritual communion between individuals in urban culture; fellow city dwellers are distanced from one another, acting as mere commodities, as in the prostitutes at the forefront of Kirchner's composition.

Unlike the pastoral scenes of Impressionism and the academic drawings of Neoclassicism, Die Br;cke artists used distorted forms and jarring, unnatural pigments to elicit the viewer's emotional response. The group was similarly united by a reductive and primitive aesthetic, a revival of older media and medieval German art, in which they used graphic techniques such as woodblock printing to create crude, jagged forms.

The group published a woodcut broadsheet in 1906, called Programme, to accompany their first exhibition. It summarized their break with prevailing academic traditions calling for a freer, youth-oriented aesthetic. Although mostly written by Kirchner, this poster served as manifesto stating the ideals of Die Br;cke. The members of Die Br;cke drew largely from the writings of German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche in terms of both their artistic project and their philosophical grounding. Their name came from a quote from Thus Spoke Zarathustra (1883-85) that states, "What is great in man is that he is a bridge and not an end." The group exhibited and collaborated through 1913, when Kirchner penned Chronik der Br;cke (Br;cke Chronicle) and the collective effectively dissolved.

Der Blaue Reiter: Kandinsky, Macke, Klee, and Marc
The artists of Der Blaue Reiter group shared an inclination towards abstraction, symbolic content, and spiritual allusion. They sought to express the emotional aspects of being through highly symbolic and brightly colored renderings. Their name emerged from the symbol of the horse and rider, derived from one of Wassily Kandinsky's paintings; for Kandinsky, the rider symbolized the transition from the tangible world into the spiritual realm and thus acted as a metaphor for artistic practice. For other members such as Franz Marc, Paul, Klee, and Auguste Macke, this notion became a central principle for transcending realistic depiction and delving into abstraction.

Although Der Blaue Reiter never published a manifesto, its members were united by their aesthetic innovations, which were influenced by medieval and primitivist art forms, Cubism, and Fauvism. However, the group itself was short-lived; with the outbreak of World War I in 1914, Franz Marc and Auguste Macke were drafted into German military service and were killed soon after. The Russian members of the group - Wassily Kandinsky, Alexej von Jawlensky, and others - were all forced to return home. Der Blaue Reiter dissolved immediately thereafter.

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French Expressionism: Rouault, Soutine, and Chagall
Expressionism's elasticity has meant that many artists beyond Germany's borders have been identified with the style. Georges Rouault, the French artist sometimes described as an Expressionist, may have influenced the Germans, rather than the other way around. He learned his vivid use of color and distortion of form from Fauvism, and, unlike his German Expressionist counterparts, Rouault expressed an affinity for his Impressionist predecessors, particularly for the work of Edgar Degas. He is well known for his devotion to religious subjects, and particularly for his many depictions of the crucifixion, rendered in rich color and heavy layers of paint.

The Russian-French Jewish artist Marc Chagall drew upon currents from Cubism, Fauvism, and Symbolism to create his own brand of Expressionism in which he often depicted dreamy scenes of his Belarusian hometown, Vitebsk. While in Paris during the height of the modernist avant-garde, Chagall developed a visual language of eccentric motifs: "ghostly figures floating in the sky, the gigantic fiddler dancing on miniature dollhouses, the livestock and transparent wombs and, within them, tiny offspring sleeping upside down." In 1914, his work was exhibited in Berlin, and had an impact on the German Expressionists extending beyond World War I. He never associated his work with a specific movement, and considered his repertoire to be a vocabulary of images meaningful to himself, but they inspired many, including the Surrealists. Pablo Picasso remarked in the 1950s, "When Matisse dies, Chagall will be the only painter left who understands what color really is."

Chaim Soutine, the Russian-Jewish, Paris-based painter, was a major proponent of the development of Parisian Expressionism. He synthesized elements from Impressionism, the French Academic tradition, and his own personal vision into an individualized technique and version of the style. The artist's expressive style has proved highly influential on subsequent generations.

Austrian Expressionism: Kokoschka and Schiele
Austrian artists such as Oskar Kokoschka and Egon Schiele, were inspired by German Expressionism, but interpreted the style in their individual and personalized manners never forming an official association like the Germans. Kokoschka and Schiele sought to express the decadence of modern Austria through similarly expressive representations of the human body; by sinuous lines, garish colors, and distorted figures, both artists imbued their subjects with highly sexual and psychological themes. Although Kokschka and Schiele were the central proponents of the movement in Austria, Kokoschka became increasingly involved in German Expressionist circles; he left Austria and moved to Germany in 1910. Initially Kokoschka worked in a Viennese Art Nouveau style, but starting in 1908 he instinctively worked as an Expressionist, passionately seeking to expose an inner sensibility of the sitter in his early portraits. Schiele left Vienna in 1912 but remained in Austria, where he worked and exhibited until his death in the worldwide influenza epidemic of 1918.

Later Developments - After Expressionism
While certain artists rejected Expressionism, others would continue to expand upon its innovations as a style. For example, in the 1920s, Kandinsky transitioned to completely non-objective paintings and watercolors, which emphasized color balance and archetypal forms, rather than figurative representation. However, Expressionism would have its most direct impact in Germany and would continue to shape its art for decades afterwards. After World War I, Expressionism began to lose impetus and fragment. The Neue Sachlichkeit (New Objectivity) movement developed as a direct response to the highly emotional tenets of Expressionism, while the Neo-Expressionists emerged in Germany and then in the United States much later in the 20th century, reprising the earlier Expressionist style.


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New Objectivity: Dix, Grosz and Beckmann
Already by 1918, the Dada manifesto claimed, "Expressionism...no longer has anything to do with the efforts made by active people." But its ethos would have a vivid afterlife; it was crucial in the early formation of artists Otto Dix, George Grosz, and Max Beckmann, who together formed the movement known as the Neue Sachlichkeit (New Objectivity). These artists sought, as the name suggests, an unsentimental and objective approach to artistic production. Their naturalistic renderings of individuals and urban scenes highlighted this new aesthetic and paralleled the general attitude of practicality that characterized Weimar culture.

Neo-Expressionism: Baselitz, Kiefer, and Schnabel
The emergence of Georg Baselitz's paintings of layered, vibrant colors and distorted figures in the 1960s, and of Anselm Kiefer's images buried amidst thick impasto built up from a variety of materials on the canvas in the 1970s, signaled an important and influential revival of the style within Germany, which would eventually culminate in a global Neo-Expressionist movement in the 1980s. Artists in New York City, like Julian Schnabel, also employed thick layers of paint, unnatural color palettes and gestural brushwork to hearken back to the Expressionist movement earlier in the 20th century.

The original Expressionist movement's ideas about spirituality, primitivism, and the value of abstract art would also be hugely influential on an array of unrelated movements, including Abstract Expressionism. The Expressionists' metaphysical outlook and instinctive discomfort with the modern world impelled them to antagonistic attitudes that would continue to be characteristic of various avant-garde movements throughout the century.

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German Expressionism

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Mein Weg vom abstracten Expressionism zum expressionistischen Portrait

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