Symbols, colors and brushstrokes
FAUVISM
Henri Matisse became one of the creators of the Fauvist movement Fauvism as a style started around 1904. It had three exhibitions between 1905-1908. It continued beyond 1910, however as a movement it lasted just a few years. It started by a group of artists who held an exhibition in 1905 at the Salon d'Automne of 1905.
The critic Louis Vauxcelles called artists 'fauves' for their style of painting, which means 'wild beasts'. Instead of sharing realistic values of representation of Impressionism, Fauvists emphasized painterly qualities and vivid colors. Leaders of the movement were Andre Derain and Henri Matisse. Other remarkable artists are Albert Marquet, Maurice de Vlaminck, Kees van Dongen, Charles Camoin, and Jean Puy
DIE BRÜCKE
Die Brücke (The Bridge) was a group of German expressional artists formed in 1905 in Dresden and came to an end in 1913. The group had a major impact on the evolution of modern art of 20th century, in particular Expressionism.
Die Brücke is often compared to the French Fauves due to mutual interest in primitivism and expressing emotion through high-keyed colors, declining from realistic depiction. They employed a crude drawing technique however refused to create something completely abstract. Subject matter of Die Brücke artists regularly became urban scenes and sexually charged events transpiring in country settings. Due to this reason, Fauves seemed to be more tamed, compared to their German counterpart. The most prominent artists of the movement were Fritz Bleyl, Erich Heckel, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and Karl Schmidt-Rottluff.
DER BLAUE REITER
Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider) was another German movement, however founded primarily by Russian emigrants such as Wassily Kandinsky, Alexej von Jawlensky, Marianne von Werefkin and group of German painters: Franz Marc, August Macke and Gabriele Münter.
They rejected the values of Munich New Artist's Association considering them too strict and traditional. Artistic values and aims varied from artist to artist, however all of them shared one common view - artists who belonged to the movement srtived to depict spiritual truths through the art. They believed in the promotion of modern art; the connection between visual art and music; the spiritual and symbolic associations of colour; and a spontaneous, intuitive approach to painting. Members were interested in European medieval art and primitivism, as well as the contemporary, non-figurative art scene in France. As a result of their encounters with cubist, fauvist and Rayonist ideas, they moved towards abstraction. Together with Die Brücke Der Blaue Reiter was fundamental for the Expressionist movement.
EXPRESSIONISM
Expressionism is a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Germany at the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it radically for emotional effect in order to evoke moods or ideas. Edvard Munch became one of the prominent painters of this movement.
Expressionist artists have sought to express the meaning of emotional experience rather than physical reality. Expressionism developed as an avant-garde style before the First World War. It remained popular during the Weimar Republic, particularly in Berlin. The style extended to a wide range of the arts, including expressionist architecture, painting, literature, theatre, dance, film and music. The term is sometimes suggestive of angst. In a historical sense, much older painters such as Matthias Grünewald and El Greco are sometimes termed expressionist, though the term is applied mainly to 20th-century works. The Expressionist emphasis on individual and subjective perspective has been characterized as a reaction to positivism and other artistic styles such as Naturalism and Impressionism.
CUBISM
Cubism has been considered the most influential art movement of the 20th century. The movement was pioneered by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque, joined by Jean Metzinger, Albert Gleizes, Robert Delaunay, Henri Le Fauconnier, and Fernand Léger.
One primary influence that led to Cubism was the representation of three-dimensional form in the late works of Paul Cézanne. In Cubist artwork, objects are analyzed, broken up and reassembled in an abstracted form—instead of depicting objects from a single viewpoint, the artist depicts the subject from a multitude of viewpoints to represent the subject in a greater context. The impact of Cubism was far-reaching and wide-ranging. In other countries Futurism, Suprematism, Dada, Constructivism, De Stijl and Art Deco developed in response to Cubism. Early Futurist paintings hold in common with Cubism the fusing of the past and the present, the representation of different views of the subject pictured at the same time, also called multiple perspective, simultaneity or multiplicity, while Constructivism was influenced by Picasso's technique of constructing sculpture from separate elements.
