Expressionism

Expressionism
	Edvard Munch, The Scream, c.1893, oil, tempera and pastel on cardboard, 91 × 73 cm, National Gallery of Norway, inspired 20th-century expressionists.
Years active	The years before WWI and the interwar years
Location	Predominantly Germany
Major figures	Artists loosely categorized within such groups as Die Brücke, Der Blaue Reiter; the Berlin Secession, the School of Paris and the Dresden Secession
Influenced	American Figurative Expressionism, generally, and Boston Expressionism, in particular

Expressionism is a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Northern Europe around 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.^[1]^[2] Expressionist artists have sought to express the meaning^[3] of emotional experience rather than physical reality.^[3]^[4]

Expressionism developed as an avant-garde style before the First World War. It remained popular during the Weimar Republic,^[1] particularly in Berlin. The style extended to a wide range of the arts, including expressionist architecture, painting, literature, theatre, dance, film and music.^[5] Paris became a gathering place for a group of Expressionist artists, many of Jewish origin, dubbed the School of Paris. After World War II, figurative expressionism influenced artists and styles around the world.

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.^[6]

^ ^a ^b Bruce Thompson, University of California, Santa Cruz, lecture on Weimar culture/Kafka'a Prague Archived 2010-01-11 at the Wayback Machine
^ Chris Baldick Concise Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms, entry for Expressionism
^ ^a ^b Victorino Tejera, 1966, pages 85,140, Art and Human Intelligence, Vision Press Limited, London
^ The Oxford Illustrated Dictionary, 1976 edition, page 294
^ Gombrich, E.H. (1995). The Story of Art (16. ed. (rev., expanded and redesigned). ed.). London: Phaidon. pp. 563–568. ISBN 978-0714832470.
^ Garzanti, Aldo (1974) [1972]. Enciclopedia Garzanti della letteratura (in Italian). Milan: Guido Villa. p. 963. page 241

[ThompsonB-1] Bruce Thompson, University of California, Santa Cruz, lecture on Weimar culture/Kafka'a Prague Archived 2010-01-11 at the Wayback Machine

[2] Chris Baldick Concise Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms, entry for Expressionism

[VT-3] Victorino Tejera, 1966, pages 85,140, Art and Human Intelligence, Vision Press Limited, London

[4] The Oxford Illustrated Dictionary, 1976 edition, page 294

[EHGombrich-5] Gombrich, E.H. (1995). The Story of Art (16. ed. (rev., expanded and redesigned). ed.). London: Phaidon. pp. 563–568. ISBN 978-0714832470.

[6] Garzanti, Aldo (1974) [1972]. Enciclopedia Garzanti della letteratura (in Italian). Milan: Guido Villa. p. 963. page 241

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Edvard Munch, The Scream, c.1893, oil, tempera and pastel on cardboard, 91 × 73 cm, National Gallery of Norway, inspired 20th-century expressionists.
Years active	The years before WWI and the interwar years
Location	Predominantly Germany
Major figures	Artists loosely categorized within such groups as Die Brücke, Der Blaue Reiter; the Berlin Secession, the School of Paris and the Dresden Secession
Influenced	American Figurative Expressionism, generally, and Boston Expressionism, in particular