How Expressionism got its name and what gave rise to it?

How Expressionist art got its name? and where?

The roots of Expressionism were in Germany, hence it’s sometimes referred to as German Expressionism. The label was used first by German art critic Herwarth Walden in his magazine, Der Sturm (German, “The Storm”), which was published between 1910 and 1932.

What gave rise to Expressionism?

Europe was not a happy place for everyone around the end of the 19th century. The social changes due to rapid industrialization resulted in a generation suffering from alienation and anxiety. Artists experimented with ways to express their perception of the world as dark and hostile. It would only get worse for them and that generation would be maimed by a world war (1914 – 1918) which they mainly saw as pointless. That’s the period that the Expressionist art movement spans, from the beginning of the new century till a few years after the war. Artists did not see conventional beauty, hence they never portrayed it. If their artworks seem disturbing, it’s because that’s exactly how they felt: disturbed.

One early group gathered in Dresden, Germany, around the artist Ernst Ludwig Kirchner (1880–1938). They called themselves Die Brücke (The Bridge) viewing their art as a bridge between classic works from the old masters and the art of the future. Expressionism expanded beyond painting, into other forms of art like music and literature. It also emerged in other parts of Europe and inspired giants like Vincent van Gogh, Edvard Munch and James Ensor. Some well-known First World War soldiers, traumatized by their horrific experiences, later became artists. Two famous examples were Otto Dix and Max Beckmann (view their paintings here). Those were artists for whom distorted, disfigured, bodies were not just metaphors on canvases, that was the reality of their “fortunate” fellow soldiers who made it out alive from the war. An iconic example is Cardplaying War-Cripples by Otto Dix here.

Expressionist artists bravely put on display the existential anxiety of their era and the search for meaning in the rubble. They shared with the viewers their struggles with melancholy, isolation and depression. They viewed the modern city as a gloomy and scary place, which was evident in paintings like Street, Dresden by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner or The Scream by Edvard Munch (view paintings here). Franz Marc was an artist who went even further and painted only animals. In his view, flawed humans were not worthy of depiction compared to noble animals such as horses (view The Tower of Blue Horses here).

How do you depict a reality that you find unjust and distorted beyond normal? The artists distorted all on their paintings: figures, faces, perspective, brushwork and color. The Expressionists could convey powerful sentiments by how he handled the paint (thick brush strokes), as an example.

Like other art movements of that era (Fauvism and Impressionism), Expressionism continued to fill in the gaps found in the emerging medium of photography. Photography could not be but an accurate representation of reality. Expressionist art however ventured into the opposite direction by reshaping reality according to how artists perceived it. Unlike photographs, their paintings showed less details, broad shapes and forms and unnatural colors. Photographs were, and still are, deceptive since they do not convey feelings, which the premise of the entire Expressionist movement.