Expressionism Research Page

Expressionism - research resources

For the main overview and history of Expressionism I will be using Wikipedia coupled with various other websites resources and research.

 - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expressionism

 - http://www.theartstory.org/movement-expressionism.htm

 - http://www.artinthepicture.com/styles/Expressionism/

 - http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/history-of-art/expressionism.htm

 - http://www.artmovements.co.uk/expressionism.htm

 - http://artyfactory.com/art_appreciation/art_movements/expressionism.htm

 - http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/198740/Expressionism

 - http://www.talktalk.co.uk/reference/encyclopaedia/hutchinson/m0097410.html


The main parts of expressionism I will be exploring will be:

     - Its origins and overall history
     - An overview of its main creators
     - I will look at the other art movements that influenced expressionism to become what it was
     - how expressionism influenced more than just painters, and how other forms of art have utilised expressionism
     - A quick overview of some of the mre famous expressionism painters or artists
     - I will also be giving a short explanation of what expression is

These are the kind of pictures I will be showing throughout my essay to give visual reference to the expressionism style as well as give examples of the more famous and less well known expressionist artists.

Synchronism: The Art movement of visually portraying sound

Synchronism: The Art movement of visually portraying sound

I have chosen to write my essay on the art movement Synchronism; this is mainly because I am interested in what the artists are actually trying to portray: using shapes and colours to show the emotion and movement of music.

        Synchronism seems really interesting as it focuses on give image to something that can’t be seen, the fact that synchronism is so closely related to music and sound intrigues me because when I draw or paint, I am always listening to music, because it helps me to feel more creative, and in turn, in my opinion makes my artwork better.

        The free style of Synchronism is very interesting as it does not rely on lines or restrictions; they rely on just colour and shape to form their paintings. The lack of perspective in the paintings makes them feel abstract, yet familiar due to what emotions they are showing.
        Stanton MacDonald-Wright and Morgan Russell were the founding fathers of synchronism; they took influence from their teacher, Percyval Tudor-Hart who taught his own colour theory which connects music and colour. The Impressionists also inspired MacDonald-Wright and Russell due to their heavy use of colour.

Research Areas:

-      Where Synchronism originated from

-      Which art movements that take influence or give influence to Synchronism

-      The psychological relevance to Synchronism

 

Research materials:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synchromism

http://ezinearticles.com/?Western-Art---Synchromism---An-American-Twist-to-Pure-Abstraction&id=3503265

Chosen Art Movement: Synchronism

Synchronism

I have chosen to write my essay on the art movement Synchronism; this is mainly because I am interested in what the artists are acctually trying to portray: using shapes and colours to show the emotion and movement of music.
     I have also learned that Synchronism is linked to a neurological condition called Synesthesia; this condition makes people react with a single sensory or cognitive pathway, e.g. sight, hearing, taste; which then leads onto an involuntary reaction from another sense. For some people this means that when music is playing, they can acctually "see" the music moving through the air, or when people read words they inherently associate particular words with certain colours, etc. I find this very interesting as well because Synchronism is in part trying to replicate the effects of a mental condition.

Mood Boards on Selected Art Movements

Mood Boards on Selected Art Movements
 
 This is the mood board I have created on Expressionism, I was most interested in the use of bright colours as well as the way that the artists twisted the reality they saw to paint the pictures they did. 

 



This is the mood board that I created for Synchronism, I especially liked Synchronism because of its use of curves and shapes to represent sound, that coupled with the use of bold colours allows people to understand the music the paintings represent.

Art Movements (part 3): Synchronism

Art Movements

Synchronism:

Synchronism was founded in 1912 by artists Stanton MacDonald-Wright and Morgan Russell. Their paintings were some of the first abstract paintings in America as well as it being the first Avant guard to receive international attention; synchronism is the idea of using colour to visualise sound or music.

        Synchronism uses the personal visualisation of what someone believes music to look like, depending on what kind of music it is and what emotions it is trying to evoke; through the use of bright colours and patterns the artists can create a harmonious mix between the sound of music and the visuals of painting; and although the paintings are abstract the shapes and movement of the painting still try to put across the complex emotion that the music portrays.

        Stanton MacDonald-Wright dismissed speculation that Synchronism was related or even based off of Orphism saying that, "it has nothing to do with orphism and anybody who has read the first catalogue of synchronism ... would realize that we poked fun at Orphism". Fauvism has similarities to the earliest Synchronism paintings.



















Historical Information, pictures and quotes; Wikipedia's page on Synchronism. (n.d.). Retrieved from:
     http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synchromism

Art Movements (part 2): Expressionism

Art Movements

Expressionism:

Expressionism was an art movement that originated in Germany from the 1890's-1930's, it was a Modernism movement that initially focused on poetry and painting. After the First World War expressionism grew to encapsulate most of the arts, such as: literature, dance, theatre, film, architecture and music.

        In 1905 a four man group of German artists formed “The Bridge” in the city Dresden, it was made up of Fritz Bleyl, Erich Heckel, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and Karl Schmidt-Rottluff; this was arguably the start of German Expressionism although the four did not use the term.

Then again in 1911 another group of younger artists called themselves “The Blue Rider”, up until 1913 the group didn’t officially use the term expressionism.

        Artwork that was produced with expressionism in mind was always created from a subjective perspective that would express meaning or emotional experience. Expressionism has been seen as a response or reaction to Positivism and other art movements like: naturalism or impressionism.

There has been debate as to what expressionism is, due to its overlapping of various main art movements, but one phrase that describes it well is, “artistic style in which the artist seeks to depict not objective reality but rather the subjective emotions and responses that objects and events arouse within a person”.

I took an immediate liking to this art style due to the largely free style of the works that I have seen, all of the artists’ works give an exceptional show of emotion and feeling, the main complimentary feature of the works being the somewhat abstract colouring used, as well as the mostly twisted visualisation of their own world.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Historical Information; Wikipedia's page on Expressionism. (n.d.). Retrieved from:
      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expressionism

Quotes from; Wikipedia's page on Expressionism. (n.d.). Retrieved from:
     http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expressionism

Pictures from; Wikipedia's page on Expressionism. (n.d). and Osnat Fine Art website. (n.d.). Retrieved from:
     http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expressionism
     http://www.osnatfineart.com/expressionism.jsp

Art Movements (part 1): Bauhaus

Art Movements



Bauhaus:

     Bauhaus was a school that was founded in Germany, in 1919 by Walter Gropius and the Bauhaus school was created from the merging of the Grand Ducal School of Arts and Crafts and the Weimar Academy of Fine Art; which became famous due to its approach to design that it publicised and taught. Bauhaus was run from 1919-1933, throughout that time the school had moved from Weimar in 1925 to Dessau, and then in 1932 it moved to Berlin where it only lasted one more year before it was closed due to their leadership being under pressure from the Nazi regime.

Bauhaus was mainly influenced by Modernism, by 1923 Walter Gropius moved Bauhaus in a new direction, stating that "we want an architecture adapted to our world of machines, radios and fast cars"; he wanted this style that carried over architecture and consumer goods to be functional, cheap and consistent for mass production.

In 1928 Walter Gropius resigned as director of the school and in his stead came, Hannes Meyer; Meyer brought on the two most significant architectural commissions the school had taken up until that point: the headquarters of the Federal School of the German Trade Unions (ADGB) in Bernau and five apartment buildings in the city Dessau. Meyer was a very political man and a vocal communist, Meyer made multiple changes to the Bauhaus school which was politically dangerous.

In 1930 Walter Gropius fired Meyer from his directorial position and instated Ludwig Mies van der Rohe as the new director, but in the final years of the Bauhaus school matters only became more difficult. Once the Bahaus school was moved from Dessau to Berlin; Mies rented a derelict factory, with his own money, which the faculty and students painted and rehabilitated the inside of the building. For ten months the school was uninterrupted until the Gestapo closed the school in 1933, though the faculty protested against the closure and received a letter stating they could reopen the school, they soon closed the school again later on in 1933, but this time they closed permanently.

The Bauhaus style is something that caught my eye due to its modern style buildings and architecture; some of the features in the buildings or homes, I find are very modern and inspiring to think they were able to design such practical, yet eye pleasing architectural pieces of art.

The city Tel Aviv has just over 4000 pieces of Bahaus architecutre, and it has been named a World Heritage site due to its large influence from the Bauhaus art movement.

Historical information; Wikipedia's information page on Bauhaus. (n.d.). Retrieved from:
     http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bauhaus

Quotes; Wikipedia's information on Bauhaus. (n.d.). Retrieved from:
     http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bauhaus

 Pictures; Website Telaviv 4 fun. (n.d.). Retrieved from:
     http://www.telaviv4fun.com/bauhaus.html