MODERN ART
Impressionism and Expressionism are a couple of the lovely times when the names of movements in the art world actually pretty clearly describe what they mean.
Impressionism, which developed after the camera came along and (at least ostensibly) relieved artists from the strictures of realism, asks an artist to give an "impression" of something, rather than a realistic rendering. This can be applied to images of people, or still-lifes, landscapes, or whatever. But the objective is to distill something beyond the mere picture and try to get at the deeper qualities that might be available if only one could be more sensitive to them - the vibrations of light, the trembling of the leaves, the emotions under the skin, and perhaps, the unity of the whole. It places the artist in the position of emotional, as well as aesthetic, analyst.
Here is "Grainstack", by Monet. It is scarcely a realist artwork, yet it still preserves the essentials of the thing while at the same time exaggerating colors and textures in order to give the feelings of the sunset (or sunrise) glow on the stack. It is positively luminous.
And now we can look at a self portrait by Van Gogh, one of many he created.
In this work - again, not realistic, he captures his intensity, the anxieties he feels, the omnipresence of creative energy, of color in his life - and perhaps, indicates his own mental instability.
Expressionism intends exactly what the word indicates. Its primary intention is the expression of feelings or spirit and it therefore - in effect -gives an artist permission to distort image or even dispense with image altogether, in order to better convey emotions or spirit. There are those who think that Expressionism has taken art too far - that it is the equivalent of an artistic tantrum. But there are others who consider Expressionism as a more "pure" form of art - of art stripped of its non-essentials, reduced only to the elements of painting and the feelings that the painting itself evokes.
This is "No.5 1948" by Jackson Pollock, one of the more famous Expressionist works in the world. I would not venture to explain "what it means" or is attempting to express. Like most abstractions, that will vary with each and every viewer.
Another, that we can probably agree is expressing quite a different feeling, is "A Green Thought in a Green Shade", by Helen Frankenthaler - although once again, I would not presume to put a name to the precise feeling.
However, you can now see, I think, that there is a huge difference between Impressionism and Expressionism? And also how one proceeded from the other.....form gradually giving way to greater emphasis on feeling and less emphasis on image. Impressionism is a 19th century artistic movement that swept much of the painting and sculpture styles of the period. It was not just a passing fad but has defined an entirely modern way of expressing one’s artistry that eventually rubbed of in other art forms like literature and photography. The impressionist artistic style had its formal launching in 1874, when a group of Parisian artists from the Cooperative and Anonymous Society of Painters, Sculptures and Engravers mounted an exhibit at the studio of photographer/journalist Felix Nadar. A group of artists composed of Claude Monet, Edgar Degas, Camille Pissarro, and a few others organized the group during the latter part of 1873 and were subsequently joined by Paul Cezanne, Auguste Renoir, Alfred Sisley and Berthe Morisot among the noted artists of the time. A total of 30 artists participated in the exhibit. They exhibited together eight times between 1874 and 1886.
Expressionism is an 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. The artist accomplishes this aim through distortion, exaggeration, primitivism, and fantasy and through the vivid, jarring, violent, or dynamic application of formal elements. In a broader sense Expressionism is one of the main currents of art in the later 19th and the 20th centuries, and its qualities of highly subjective, personal, spontaneous self-expression are typical of a wide range of modern artists and art movements. Expressionism can also be seen as a permanent tendency in Germanic and Nordic art from at least the European Middle Ages, particularly in times of social change or spiritual crisis, and in this sense it forms the converse of the rationalist and classicizing tendencies of Italy and later of France.
More specifically, Expressionism as a distinct style or movement refers to a number of German artists, as well as Austrian, French, and Russian ones, who became active in the years before World War I and remained so throughout much of the interwar period.
Impressionist art came before Impressionist music, but the incarnation of the art in musical form has concrete connections to the visual media.
Impressionist music is characterized by emphasis on texture and color of music over developing motifs; to steal a quote from wikipedia: "conveying the moods and emotions aroused by the subject rather than a detailed tone‐picture."
A quintessential example of this style would be Erik Satie's Gymnopedie No.1.
The piece places emphasis on the textures and colors over the development of motifs.
Expressionism, on the other hand, is characterized by clarity of intent, the Scream painting being the ideal example in the visual medium. The composers try to avoid standard musical conventions to convey powerful emotions, often times abandoning standard conventions of beauty.
Schoenberg is often times cited as the first expressionist composer. He was close friends with Wassily Kadinsky and was a painter himself!
In order to maintain the same genre, I chose Op11 No.1 as an example of expressionism.
In this piece he is emphasizing motivic content over texture. He abandons major musical constructs (tonality vs atonality) in order to clearly describe his inner anguish. Again, think of The Scream when listening to this expressionist work.
