spires

Larger Than Life:

Expressionism:

Exaggerates: colour, mood, and distorts the subject to express.

Edvard Munch, The Scream 1893 – Exaggerates the human figure

ExpressionismHeckle — Erich Heckel expressionism windmill 1909 – exaggerating colours and form

Alexej von Jawlensky Portrait of the Dancer 1909 - Exaggerating features and colour/ outlines — Alexej von Jawlensky Portrait of the Dancer 1909 – Exaggerating features and colour/ outlines

In order to understand the many forms Expressionism took in Dresden, Berlin, Munich, Vienna and numerous provincial outposts, it is useful to grasp what it was rebelling against. In common with much of Western Europe, Wilhelmine Germany in the late nineteenthcentury was in a state of massive upheaval. The rampant effects of modern capitalism – industrialisation, urbanisation, rationalisation and secularisation – created ruptures in the social fabric that were not easily absorbed or contained.
Bassie, Ashley. Art of Century : Expressionism. New York, NY, USA: Parkstone International, 2012. ProQuest ebrary. Web. 16 October 2015.
Copyright © 2012. Parkstone International. All rights reserved.

Expressionism was so much concerned with intense sensations, conflicting forces, dynamism, and contradiction that its artists were drawn, horrified or fascinated, to the city. Modern urban experience became the subject and inspiration for a swathe of Expressionist art and literature. Some sang ecstatic hymns to the pulsating and dynamism of the big city. Others mourned its poisoning, alienating effects on the body and the psyche.
Bassie, Ashley. Art of Century : Expressionism. New York, NY, USA: Parkstone International, 2012. ProQuest ebrary. Web. 16 October 2015.
Copyright © 2012. Parkstone International. All rights reserved.