Expressionism

But what is expressionism actually? According to the Internet, expressionism a manner of painting, drawing, sculpting, etc., in which forms derived from nature are distorted or exaggerated and colors are intensified for emotive or expressive purposes. In easier language, it is the style of art in which exaggerated and over-expressive colours are used to express the artist's emotions. You can see that in the paintings below.

Starry Night (1889)

A Starry Night, painted by Vincent van Gogh. It shows the east window of his asylum in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, he added the village in the right-bottom corner by just imagining what it looked like. In his eyes, this was the perfect village. The painting is an oil-on-canvas painting. The blue sky was painted with ultramarine and cobalt blue (dyes of blue) and a rare dye of indian yellow and zinc yellow. It is 73.3 centimetres long, and 92.1 centimetres wide. It is currently in the Museum of Modern Art, in New York City. This was in a period of his life in which van Gogh felt blue (look at the painting, it's almost entirely blue), and felt depressed.

Blue horses (1911)

Blue horses is a painting made by Franz Marc. Its original name is 'Die grossen blauen Pferde', which means 'The big blue Horses'. It is an oil-on-canvas painting as well. Unlike Starry Night, this painting has a lot of bright colours and dyes. At the moment, it is shown in the Walker Art Centre in Minneapolis, a city in Minnesota, one of the 52 United States members. Franz Marc also painted a similar painting called 'Die kleine blauen Pferde', which means 'The small blue Horses'.What catches my attention is that Marc mostly made use of primary colours; blue, yellow and red is what you see most in the painting.

Flora in Flight (2010)

'Flora in Flight' is not a very well known painting, but it is still expressionism, because it does not have a lot of lighting, but it does have a lot of bright colours. It was painted by Joseph Palotas. It is a very recent painting. There is not to be told about it, except that it is a nice and clear form of expressionism, because it can express the feelings of the artist in a clear way. It is exhibited in the Venice Art Centre in Venice Florida. This painting is just expressionism because of its overexaggerated colours, but it does not express any feelings. When an artist wants to express his or her feelings, he or she usually uses one specific colour that stands out most, which s not the case in this painting.

The Scream (1983)

The Scream is a painting by Edvard Munch. It depicts a man on a bridge, where he stands still and looks at the land and the blood red sky. He feels like nature is screaming at him, and he gets a feeling of faint and depression. The painting is based on Munch's own traumatic experiences and the hatred, pain and fear he felt during a certain period of his life. It is often thought that the creature in the centre of the painting is screaming, but, as told before, nature is screaming to him, and as a reaction he covering his ears.  The painting has been stolen once, by 3 Norwegian men, who stole the painting, but they were caught when they were trying to sell it. It was first called despair, but then Munch gradually started calling it the Scream. The painting actually was the start of expressionism, because Munch put a lot of feeling in it, and you can see it.

Selbstbildnis als Soldat (1915)

This painting is called Selbstbildnis als Soldat, which is German, so translated to English, it is a selfportrait as soldier. The painter is Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. It is during the 1st world war, and Kirchner has just been dismissed from the army because he has gone mad. In this period of time, Kirchner put a lot of feeling into his art, which is why he drew this painting. It shows a German soldier on the foreground. In the title, Kirchner says it is him, because it is a selfportrait. You see that he has his hand cut off. This is because nobody from the German army survived the war without some kind of injury. This really shows how he felt during this period of time.

Futurism

There also is a subtopic in expressionism, which is futurism. This concerns paintings about the future. The dictionary says that futurism is the style of the fine arts developed originally by a group of Italian artists about 1910 in which forms derived chiefly from cubism were used to represent rapid movement and dynamic motion. This might again be too difficult to understand. To make it slightly less complicated, futurism was developed by a group of Italian artists during the start of the 20th century. They used simple shapes like cubes and triangles (geometric shapes) to create artworks that concerned the future; they painted machines and other mechanisms. Here are some examples.

Brooklyn Bridge (1910 - 1920)

This painting was painted by Joseph Stella, who was an Italian immigrant in the USA, in the period between 1910 and 1920. He was very interested in art, but especially in futurism. He was certain that this was the only thing that could capture the new age of machinery. This caused him to paint the Brooklyn Bridge in a futurist style, which he described as: The shrine containing all the efforts of the new civilization of America,. A maze of wires and cables, the granite piers and Gothic arches and the Manhattan skyscrapers. In this painting, you can see that futurism is not made to express your emotions, like with expressionism, but it has the same exaggerated shapes and colours as expressionism, which makes it a subtopic.

Charge of the lancers (1915)

The charge of the lancers is a painting by Umberto Boccioni. This painting is the only one that Boccioni has painted concerning the theme of war. It shows a battalion of horses attacking the (assumed to be German) frontiers. He wants to show that horses have a natural power that it greater than any manmade weapon. The only ironic part of this painting is that Boccioni has died being trampeled by a horse.

Abstract speed + sound (1913 - 1914)

Just like charge of the lancers has this painting been painted by an Italian artist, named Giacomo Balla. He painted this out of interest for movement and sound, but racing cars in particular, because they had both movement and sound. The painting is exposed in the Guggenheim museum in New York City.