1905 – 1925
1. People, places and objects are distorted or exaggerated. Even nature is sometimes distorted. The scenes show a modern world which is hostile and alienating. The sinister feeling is amplified by aggressive and raw brush strokes.
Starry Night by Van Gogh
Street, Dresden by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner
The Night (Die Nacht) by Max Beckmann
2. People seem sickly or in emotional pain and anguish. The faces are always gloomy. You never find conventional beauty in Expressionist art!
Puberty by Edvard Munch
Cardplaying War-Cripples by Otto Dix
Self-Portrait (Man Twisting Arm Around Head) by Egon Schiele
Death in the Sickroom by Edvard Munch
3. Like Fauvism, colors are unrealistic but Expressionists were not obsessed with red. The unnatural colors are often dark to “express” their feelings about the modern world. Someone once labelled Expressionism as “fauvism with dark glasses.” Edvard Munch’s masterpiece is an example: In his own words he “painted the clouds like real blood.”
The Scream by Edvard Munch
The Tower of Blue Horses by Franz Marc
4. Expressionist art is similar to the Symbolist, the scenes are eerie or nightmarish but you can tell them apart: Expressionist perspective, similar to people and objects, is distorted. Also shapes and forms usually lack much detail.
Self-Portrait as a Soldier by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner
The Last Supper by Emil Nolde
Cardinal and Nun by Egon Schiele
2. How Expressionism got its name and what gave rise to it?
3. Why Expressionist artists were rebels?