Expressionism

Bianca Zepeda
HTH, CA

Expressionism is an art movement that began in Germany in the late 19th century and early 20th century. It is known for its use of distortion and exaggeration for emotional effect. Expressionists sought to distort reality and express angst. The movement grew as an opposition to Impressionism, and is characterized for its use of dark colors, frantic brushstrokes and exaggerated lines to create emotion in the artwork and to exaggerate the artist experience. Though the expressionist movement affected mostly painting, the movement had also other art forms such as film, literature, architecture and music. It came about when artists began identifying the expression of an experience they had in a more exaggerated way instead of showing it realistically. Many of the expressionist artists were European, specifically German. Some of the German artists associated with the movement included Georges Rouault, Max Beckmann, Otto Dix, Lionel Feininger, George Grosz, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, August Macke, Emil Nolde, Max Pechstein. The Austrian Oskar Kokoschka, the Czech Alfred Kubin and the Norvegian Edvard Munch are also related to this movement.

The German painters were divided into two groups, the Die Bruecke meaning “the bridge” and the Der Blaue Reiter meaning “the blue rider”. Die Bruecke was established in Dresden, Germany in 1905 by a group of architecture students that lived and worked in a community and sought to reinvigorate art with expressive form. They took the name “Die Bruecke” from a line in German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche’s Thus Spoke Zarathustra that describes mankind as a bridge leading to a higher ideal. It was the Nietzsche’s literary work that set the tone for the groups’ bohemian lifestyle. Sadly at the onset of the First World War “Die Bruecke” was broken up due to artistic differences and was replaced by a new group called “Dresdener Sezessioin”. The artists in that formed the “Die Bruecke” were Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Erich Heckel and Emil Nolde.

The second group of expressionist “Der Blaue Retier”, began in 1911 and were located in Munich. Some of the founders of this group were Wassily Kandinsky, Franz Marc, August Macke and Alexej von Jawlensky. Other members of this group included, Paul Klee, August Macke, Gabriele Munter and Marianne von Werefkin. They named their group “Der Blaue Reiter” because of Franz Marc’s love for horses and Wassily Kandinsky’s admiration for the color blue. The group was split up in 1914 during the beginning of World War 1 due to the death of Franz Marc and August Macke who were killed in combat. During this time, Wassily Kandinsky and Alexej von Jawlensky were forced to move back to Russia because of their Russian citizenship.

Some of the most important art pieces in the expressionist movement were, “The Scream” by Edvard Munch, “Der Blaue Reiter” by Wassily Kandinsky and “Little Yellow Horses” by Franz Marc. “The Scream” was said to be inspired by a true experience Munch had when he was walking across a bridge in his hometown with some friends and suddenly had an urge to scream. In this painting you can really see the fear in the screaming man’s face. The choice of colors and the shapes also brings a sort of eerie feeling to the painting. “Der Blaue Reiter”, one of Kandinskiy’s most popular pieces shows a man in blue riding a horse across a green meadow. The outline and shape of the rider and his horse are seen in the painting, but the images are not clearly defined which is a characteristic of expressionist artwork. Marc is known for including horses in his artwork since he loved them so much. “Little Yellow Horses” is just one among many horse paintings. In this painting three yellow horses are lying against each other on the floor. The colors in this painting are very dark, such as the yellow which is almost orange in some areas.

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