Guarisco Gallery 2012

Pre-Impressionist Art Movements Neoclassicism: (1760-1830) The late-18th/eary 19th century movement in European art characterized by Greek and Roman inspired subject matter. Viewed as a reaction against the frivolous Rococo style, the Neo-classicists emphasized the heroic and antique, seeking balance, order, purification of form and strict adherence to classical principles. Artists: Jacques Louis David, Jean Auguste Ingres Romanticism: (1770-1840) Sentiment and individual experience were the keystones to the Romantic art movement, the antithesis to the Neoclassi- cal school. Mythology, history and literature were subjects of choice and color was the primary means of relaying melancholy, heroism, drama and intense passion. Artists: Théodore Géricault and Eugène Delacroix The Barbizon School: (1840-1850) The true harbinger of the Impressionist movement, the painters of the Barbizon School alluded to loose painting application and the fascination with plein air painting and the depiction of light . The Barbizon artist painted land- scapes directly from nature and were united in their opposi- tion to urban life, instead choosing to paint on the outskirts of the forest of Fontainebleau. Artists: Eugène Boudin, Jean François Millet, Jean Baptiste Camille Corot, Theodore Rousseau, Léon Lhermitte, Charles Daubigny Realism or Naturalism: (1840-1880) Unconcerned with the noble responsibility of the Neoclassicists and the Romantics, the Realist school chose to paint everyday life and truth . Religion and moral lessons had no place in their paintings as they painted objectively , accurately and honestly the daily activities of average peo- ple. Idealization and beauty were not emphasized as these artist rejected traditional academic subjects. Artists: Gustave Courbet, Honoré Daumier, Jean François Raffaeli IMPRESSIONISM, POST-IMPRESSIONISMAND WORLD IMPRESSIONISM IMPRESSIONISM : The blossoming of French Impressionism in the 1870s was the debut of modern art. Several technical and scientific developments influenced this new and modern approach to painting. The growing use of the camera helped change the depiction of composition and subject. The invention of paint in tubes allowed artists to paint out of doors rather than in academic studios. The discovery of new dyes allowed the Impressionists to extend their color range. The science of light and the prism enabled artists to break from the academic technique of color blending to separation of color into its purest form. The choice of everyday life as subject matter and painting out-of-doors was also characteristic of Impressionism. Artists: Eugène Boudin, Camille Pissarro, Edouard Manet, Edgar Degas, Alfred Sisley, Claude Monet, Auguste Renoir, Mary Cassatt POST-IMPRESSIONISM : This imperfect term applies more to a period of time, roughly 1886-1910, than an artistic school. The Post-Impressionist period was a maelstrom of varied artistic philosophies. These include Symbolism, Pointillism and Fauvism. Stylistically, the Post-Impressionists generally painted with flatter forms, stronger colors, and more emotion than the Impressionists. Artists: Paul Cézanne, Georges Seurat, Vincent Van Gogh, Paul Gauguin WORLD IMPRESSIONISM : Impressionism was an approach to art adopted by artists throughout the world, especially Great Britain, America, and on the Continent. Each country had stylistic similarities to the French, but also infused its own unique qualities. American Impressionism grew after many artists seeking better academic training abroad gained exposure to the artistic movements in France. Giverny, Monet’s home, became a very attractive art colony and haven for artists from all over the world. British Impressionism lasted roughly from 1880-1910 and evolved not only from the French but from their own landscape master, J.M.W. Tuner. American Artists: Mary Cassatt, Theodore Robinson, Childe Hassam, John Henry Twachtman, J. Alden Weir British Artists: Walter Sickert, Philip Wilson Steer, Sidney Starr, Theodore Roussel, James McNeil Whistler Effects of Impressionism Fauvism: 1905-1907 France A brief school of painting whose adherents were nicknamed the 'wild beasts' for their vivid, unnatural color and distor- tion of form. The bold compositions of pure and contrasting colors were expressive and emotional in tone. The Fauves exhibited at the Salon d’Automne in 1905 and the Salon des Indépendants in 1906. Gauguin’s Synthetist canvases and the Nabis impacted the theories of the Fauves. Artists: Henri Matisse, Maurice de Vlaminck, Raoul Dufy, Georges Rouault Expressionism 1905-1914 Germany Heightened expression, intense color and distortion of natu- ral proportions were the formal means of the Expressionists. More emotional than scientific , naturalism was abandoned for passion delineated by exaggerated shape and color. The tortured and symbolic forms were commentary against the established order. Van Gogh and Gauguin were the most influential of the movement. Artists: Emile Nolde, Otto Mueller, Edvard Munch, Wassily Kandinsky, James Ensor Cubism: 1907-1914 France A movement motivated by the simplification of form into geometric shapes. Art was no longer an imitation of nature. Traditional perspective and foreshortening were abandoned, and solidity and volume were represented using a two-di- mensional picture plane. The emphasis of Cubism was con- ceptual realism rather than optical realism. Cézanne’s work was instrumental in the birth of this movement. Artists: George Braque, Pablo Picasso, Juan Gris, Fernand Léger Futurism: 1900-1914 Italy This movement was propelled by the political manifestos of Italian poet Filippo Marinetti, who announced the birth of modern art with the abolition of traditional form and color. Dynamism, movement and motion were the elements that inspired Futurist compositions, which were meant to cele- brate modern urban life and the 'beauty of speed'. The scien- tific aspects of Seurat’s Neo-Impressionist works were of great importance to the development of Futurism. Artists: Giacomo Balla, Marcel Duchamp, Francis Picabia, Joseph Stella Symbolism: 1886-1910 France Developed in Brittany by Paul Gauguin, this style of paint- ing used dreams and the subconscious for inspiration. The colors, used symbolically, were bold and the forms flat and outlined. The Nabis were the group practicing the style which rejected the realism favored by the Impressionists for more ethereal and mystical fare. Artists: Paul Gaugin, Maurice Denis, Pierre Bonnard, Edouard Vuillard