Futurism

    FUTURISM

   Futurism came into being with the appearance of a manifesto published by the poet Filippo Marinetti on the front page of the February 20, 1909, issue of Le Figaro. It was the very first manifesto of this kind. The Futurists loved speed, noise, machines, pollution, and cities; they embraced the exciting new world that was then upon them rather than hypocritically enjoying the modern world's comforts while loudly denouncing the forces that made them possible. Fearing and attacking technology has become almost second nature to many people today; the Futurist manifestos show us an alternative philosophy.

   Futurism was inspired by the development of Cubism and went beyond its techniques. The Futurist painters made the rhythm of their repetitions of lines. Inspired by some photographic experiments, they were breaking motion into small sequences, and using the wide range of angles within a given time-frame all aimed to incorporate the dimension of time within the picture. Brilliant colors and flowing brush strokes also additionally were creating the illusion of movement. Futurism influenced many other 20th century art movements, including Art Deco, Vorticism, Constructivism and Surrealism. 
   Although Futurism itself is now regarded as extinct, having died out during the 1920s, powerful echoes of Marinetti's thought, still remain in modern, popular culture and art. Futurism influenced many other 20th century art movements, including Art Deco, Vorticism, Constructivism and Surrealism. 

    Main represantatives of Futurism are;Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, Giacomo Balla, Carlo Carra, Umberto Boccioni and Gino Severi
.

    

Les Fauves and Die Brücke

Les Fauves

    Fauvism is a movement in French painting that revolutionized the concept of color in modern art. Fauves earned their name ("les fauves"-wild beasts) by shocking exhibit visitors on their first public appearance, in 1905.
   At the end of the nineteenth century, neo Impressionist painters were already using pure colors, but they applied those colors to their canvases in small strokes. The fauves rejected the impressionist palette of soft, shimmering tones in favor of radical new style, full of violent color and bold distortions.
   These painters never formed a movement in the strict sense of the word, but for years they would nurse a shared ambition, before each went his separate and more personal way.
    Main representatives od Les Fauves are; Henri Matisse, Paul Gauguin, Andre Derain, Raoul Dufy, Maurice de Vlaminck, Kees van Dongen, Albert Marquet, Charles Camoin, Georges Braque, Othon Friesz, Henry- Charles Manguin, Jean Puy.

Henri Matisse

Henri Matisse was a French artist, noted for his use of color and his fluid, brilliant and original draughtsmanship. As a painter, Matisse is one of the best-known artists of the twentieth century. Although he was initially labeled as a Fauve (wild beast), by the 1920s he was increasingly hailed as an upholder of the classical tradition in French painting. His mastery of the expressive language of color and drawing is apparent in a body of work spanning over a half-century, and won him recognition as a leading figure in modern art.

Die Brücke

   Die Brucke was the association of artist expressionists from Dresden, Germany. Their first exhibition was held in 1906.
   Die Brucke made use of a technique that was controlled, intentionally unsophisticated and crude, developing a style hallmarked by expressive distortions and emphases. Die Brucke artists often used color similar to the Fauves, and they were also influenced by art form from Africa and Oceania. 
   Some of the painters in the group sympathized with the revolutionary socialism of the day and drew inspiration from Van Gogh's ideas on artists' communities. Die Brucke expressionists believed that their social criticism of the ugliness of modern life could lead to a new and better future.

Expressionism

Expressionism

    Expressionism was a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting. It is originated in Germany. Expressinism 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. The artist accomplishes this aim through distortion, exaggeration, primitivism, and fantasy and through the vivid, jarring, violent, or dynamic application of formal elements.    The expressionistic tradition was significantly, rose to the emergence with a series of paintings of Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh from the last year and a half of his life. There was recorded his heightened emotional state. One of the earliest and most famous examples of Expressionism is Gogh's "The Starry Night." Whatever was cause, it cannot be denied that a great many artists of this period assumed that the chief function of art was to express their intense feelings to the world.
     In the years just around 1910 the expressionistic approach pioneered by Ensor, Munch, and van Gogh, in particular, was developed in the work of three artists' groups: the Fauves, Die Brucke, Der Blaue Reiter.      Main representatives of Expressionism are; Vincent van Gogh, James Ensor, Edvard Munch, Oskar Kokoschka, Egon Schiele, Marc Chagal, Salvador Dali, Henri Metisse, Amadeo Modigliani, Pablo Picasso, Paul Gauguin.

Vincent van Gogh

Vincent Willem van Gogh was a Dutch Post-Impressionist artist. His paintings and drawings include some of the world's best known, most popular and most expensive piece. Expressive luminosity of color and blotchy brushwork are Vincent van Gogh's distinguishing characteristics which made him the model of expressionist painters at the turn of the century.     Initially, van Gogh worked only with somber colors, until he encountered Impressionism and Neo-Impressionism in Paris. Although his own painting style was primarily developed autodidactically, he incorporated impressionistic brighter colors and their style of painting into his, uniquely recognizable style. It was fully developed after he settled in Arles, and this stay in Provence. It is seen as the zenith of his creative work.

     He produced more than 2,000 works, including around 900 paintings and 1,100 drawings and sketches, during the last ten years of his life. Most of his best-known works were produced in the final two years of his life, during which time he cut off part of his left ear following a breakdown in his friendship with Paul Gauguin. After this he suffered recurrent bouts of mental illness. In 1890, he died from the consequences of the attempt of suicide.

     Van Gogh's pictures, which were not saleable during his lifetime, are today auctioned at very high prices. He is a pioneer of what came to be known as Expressionism. He had an enormous influence on 20th century art, especially on the Fauves and German Expressionists.

SYMBOLISM AND LES NABIS

SYMBOLISM
      Symbolism refers to movements in both literature and the visual arts during the late 19th Century. Symbolism was seen in France. In symbolism art became infused with mysticism. French Symbolism is a continuation of Romantism and it is opposed to Impressionism.          The term Symbolism means the systematic use of symbols or pictorial conventions to express an allegorical meaning. Symbolism is an important element of most religious arts and reading symbols plays a main role in psychoanalysis. Thus, the Symbolist painters used these symbols from mythology and dream imagery for a visual language of the soul.
         Not so much a style of art, Symbolism was more an international ideological trend. Symbolists believed that art should apprehend more absolute truths which could only be accessed indirectly. Thus, they painted scenes from nature, human activities, and all other real world phenomena in a highly metaphorical and suggestive manner. They provided particular images or objects with esoteric attractions.
      Sybolism includes such artists as, John Henry Fusseli and Caspar David Friedrich . Anticipating Freud and Jung, the Symbolists mined mythology and dream imagery for a visual language of the soul. More a philosophical approach than an actual style of art, they influenced their contemporaries in the Art Nauveau movement and Les Nabis. The leading Symbolists included Gustave Mouraveu, Puvis de Chavannes, and Odilon Redon.

   LES NABIS

      Les Nabis were a group of Post-Impressionist artists and illustrators in Paris who became very influential in the field of graphic art .      Their name derived from the Hebrew word navi, which means prophet. The group was comprised of Post-Impressionist artists who became interested in graphic art. The movement shared many of the ideas of the Art Nouveau style and Symbolism. Les Nabis began as a rebel group of young artists who met and formed at the Academie Julian in Paris. In addition to fine arts, members of the group also worked in printmaking, poster design, illustration, textiles, furniture, and set design.       Some of the representatives of Les Nabis are; Pierre Bonnard, Felix Vallaton, Denis Maurice and Eduard Muillard.

Impressionism and Neo-Impressionism

IMPRESSIONISM
   Impressionism is a 19th century artistic movement which was seen in France. It was first seen in painting and later on in music. Impressionism sometimes called optical realism because of its almost scientific interest in the actual visual experience and effect of light and movement on appeareance of objects.    Impressionist motto - human eye is a marvelous instrument. Impact worldwide was lasting and huge. The name 'Impressionists' came as artists embraced the nickname a conservative critic used to ridicule the whole movement. Painting 'Impression: Sunrise' by Claude Monet fathered derogatory referral. Impressionist fascination with light and movement was at the core of their art. Exposure to light and/or movement was enough to create a justifiable and fit artistic subject out of literally anything. Impressionists learned how to transcribe directly their visual sensations of nature, unconcerned with the actual depiction of physical objects in front of them. Two ideas of Impressionists are expressed here. One is that a quickly painted oil sketch most accurately records a landscape's general appearance. The second idea that art benefits from a naïve vision untainted by intellectual preconceptions was a part of both the naturalist and the realist traditions, from which their work evolved.

NEO-IMPRESSIONISM (after 1880)
   Neo-Impressionism outgrew the Impressionism. Many Impressionists in the years after 1880 began to reconsider their earlier approaches or make important adjustments to them. What many of them found objectionable in their earlier art was not its truth value but its lack of permanence. Despite the fundamental similarity of conception, later works differ from earlier works in two fundamental respects. The elements, especially the figures, are more solidly and conventionally defined, and composition is more conservative. They moved far from her early commitment to depicting only contemporary moments. This pattern of rejection and reform was originated by Georges-Pierre Seur, who made use of a technique called pointillism (known as confettiism). This new technique is based on the skillful putting side by side touches of pure color. The brain then blends the colors automatically in the involuntary process of optical mixing. Other neo-impressionists include Camille Pisarro, Paul Signac, Theodoor van Rysselberghe, and Henry Edmond Cross.