Expressionism was an artistic and cultural movement that was born in Germany at the end of the 19th century and extended until the beginning of the 20th century. It included different artistic disciplines of the time, such as painting, literature, architecture and cinema, among others.
The fundamental principle of this style was to represent reality from a perspective close to the emotions and subjective responses that the immediate environment could generate in a person. To achieve this, artists used colors and strokes that showed distortion, exaggeration and fantasies, with the purpose of achieving an emotional effect.
The Starry Night - Vincent Van Gogh
It was one of the first art trends to be classified as “historical avant-garde” , but it was never a homogeneous movement, since it was made up of various trends that emerged in opposition to the artistic style that dominated at that time, Impressionism.
So we can talk about different expressionisms such as fauvist, modernist, cubist, surrealist, as well as many others. All these variants had in common that, at first, they showed works that used dark colors and strokes that caused the feeling of loneliness and misery , a very common feeling in German society in the interwar period, mired in an economic and financial crisis. political.
The Scream - Edvard Munch
Although expressionism was a trend that emerged thanks to a group of artists from Germany, it quickly expanded among artists from other latitudes such as Austrians, French and Russians , making it easier for the movement to adapt to other realities and subjectivities beyond discomfort. German.
After the end of the Second World War in 1945, the movement began to lose its strength, since fatigue after the wars and the long process of transition towards normality began to change the mentality of the citizens. However, the precepts of expressionism served as an important source of inspiration for the artistic currents that emerged later , during the second half of the 20th century.
Seated woman with bent knees - Egon Schiele
Important artists were part of the expressionist movement, such as Vincent Van Gogh, Edvard Munch, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Vasili Kandisnki and Egon Schiele .
Find the best works of the expressionist era in the "Art Gallery" section, on our website www.tiendapasquin.cl.