Impressionism and Expressionism
Expressionism and impressionism are art movements that are derived from the fundamental rights of the human being. They originate from the freedom of expression. Irrespective of some visual similarities, the two forms of art are diametric opposite. The two forms are modernist yang and yin brought about by ancient painting techniques. For the proper distinction between the two forms of the art movement, the time frame of the existence should be taken into consideration. The two types of movement existed in different centuries. The second major distinction occurs in the location where impressionism originated from France while the expressionism originated from Germany.
Impressionism originated from France due to the rise of the tumultuous period where there was a gradual change of social and political life of the people. The transformation of the peoples’ social life, including politics and religion propagated far beyond France. The proceeding French revolution had a great influence on the impressionism. During the 18th century, religion, politics, and the fundamental rights of a human being had undergone a transformation. The artistic institution of impressionism was the main art movement in the art world of French. Impressionism ensured that ancient standard art was reserved. The French institutions involved Academie des Beaux-Arts that propagated the knowledge of sculpture, music, painting, and architecture (Castell, 2016). The three institutions of French played a pivotal role in providing diverse experience in des Beaux-Arts, which segments the French tradition and to sustain the artistic movement.
The artists of impressionism were opposed to traditional realism, and they majored in spontaneous brushstrokes, the subjects of modernized life, and vibrant colours. A complex optical method was used by the impressionists who experimented with color. The colors were combined with pigments that were not blended to produce a nebulous mixture of the original color. The artist also applied the use of short hurried brushstrokes in many instances since they worked quickly outdoors.
Impressionists also invented themes of isolation in a transformed society via their subject gaze. The subject gaze was unique as it was different from the others in the same location. Moreover, artists would incorporate physical barriers like bars and balconies. Impressionism employed the use of the sculpture and the painting during the 19 th century (Warren, 1996). This art was very conservative, and it emerged into the creation of other forms such as photography and literature. The launching of the artistic impressionist style was launched in 1874, where an unknown society of painters, engravers, and sculptures displayed their studio of the photographer.
The impressionist widely explored the use of color and visible brushstrokes as a form of their artistic style. The painters normally used deep colors for the paintings to be more vivid. The edges where the color joined were normally blended together using a harsh line. It was very difficult to distinguish the origin and the terminal point of the color. The main purpose of the impressionist is to get the impression of light in the scene. The impressionist uses the modern methods painting where the paint was applied in small propositions of pure color instead of mixing the paint and applying it on the broad strokes using a brush or a painting knife (Castell, 2016). The use of this method enabled the artist to focus more of their attention on the impression of their subject matter instead of painting the object in a logical manner. The image painted by the impressionist could be viewed easily since they are painted in vibrant colors.
On the other hand, expressionism developed later after impressionism had taken roots. It comes into existence as an opposing movement to counteract the movement that founded the impressionism. It was against naturalism and realism. The expressionist painting is more characterized by exaggeration and distortion in order to generate emotional feelings. The paintings clearly depict the vibrant imagery, which is linked with emotion. They usually portray the representation of the negative side of human nature. The style that is used by the expressionist usually makes use of the disjointed spaces, agitated brushstrokes, and intense color. The expressionist artists usually portray their emotions and their perceptions in their artistic work. The expressionists prioritize subjectivity instead of realism (Folego, Gomes & Rocha, 2016). The artists who employ this style bring in a large degree of violence and fantasy in their subject matter for proper representation of the degree of emotion. The expressionism is less concerned with reality and focuses on creating the emotion about the transforming world.
The expressionists use strong colors to represent a weird sense of darkness and anxiety. The emotions are well depicted through art. Expressionism is very complicated and does not conform to the reality of nature. Some expressionists like Kandinsky have majored in expressing the spirituality of human beings and the non-material nature of humanity. The spiritual strivings and the emotional agony of expressionism seem to originate from undefined standards and rules of painting. The expressionists make use of the disproportionate sizes of paintings and odd angles. Besides, these paintings are made using intense and vivid colors. The subjects that are covered in the expressionistic style include spirituality, anxiety, fantasy, violence, and lack of authenticity (Folego, Gomes & Rocha, 2016). Expressionism had developed to counteract the negative effects of urban development. The expressionist artists resolved to distorted subjects, lurid color, to portray the intensity of the emotions. Every color converted a specific feeling, thus acting as a symbol of certain feelings. Expressionism has predetermined actions of representing the psychological perception of color.
Moreover, expressionism largely employs the palliation of solid hues, which were bold and gestural brushstrokes to portray extreme emotions. Different colors in this artistic movement have varying feelings that are associated with them. The subjects were represented in colors that lacked the natural linkage to them. The subject had distorted and exaggerated meaning that could not be comprehended easily. The distorted subjects had a lot of bearing on the boredom and the anxieties in urban life.
In conclusion, expressionism and impressionism are very distinct forms of the artistic movement. Their styles are very different as expressionism focusses on the emotional response while impressionism is concerned with the objective reality. In impressionism, vibrant colors are used, and the subject is outdoor, while less attention is put on the details. The paint applied in impressionistic style is put in minute proportions using pure color as opposed to a blend of colors. The painting of the impressionist features the real world. The sculpture that is painted by the impressionists is usually in the mind of the painter. Expressionism was a direct reaction against impressionism. Impressionism is geared towards creating an impression where it focusses on making a painting to be attractive in order to be liked by the viewer. On the other hand, expressionism focusses on the emotional side of the object.
References
Castelli, A. (2016). Chinese Realism: Between Impressionism and Expressionism. Research Journal of Humanities and Cultural Studies, 2(1), 26-46.
Folego, G., Gomes, O., & Rocha, A. (2016, September). From impressionism to expressionism: Automatically identifying van gogh’s paintings. In 2016 IEEE International Conference on Image Processing (ICIP) (pp. 141-145). IEEE.
Warren, J. P. (1996). Erik Ingvar Thurin,” Whitman Between Impressionism and Expressionism”(Book Review). Walt Whitman Quarterly Review, 13(4), 225.