Written By Lissa
Expressionism A short fact file
Definition:
Expressionism was 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.
Famous Expressionist Artists, playwrights, poets and writers include:
Vincent Van Gogh
Edvard Munch
James Joyce
August Strindberg
Ernst Toller
Georg Heym
Example of a poem from the Austrian expressionist poet Georg TraklGrodek1
The evening echoes with the sound
of deadly weapons: forests, golden plains
and deep blue lakes, and over these the sun
now darkly rolls. Night encompasses
the fallen warriors; a fevered muttering
from broken mouths
There gathers, silently, among the grazing lands
a dark red cloud, the dwelling of an angry god
that spills with blood. A placid moon and roads
that run out everywhere to black decay.
Beneath the golden branches of the night and stars
the sister's shadow travels through the quiet grove
to greet the spirits of the heroes, the bleeding heads,
and solemnly, among the reeds, the darkening flutes of autumn sound.
How proud is desolation on whose earlier shrines today
the spirit's scorching flames drink in the countless griefs
of grandsons yet unborn.2
1 Translates as Evening
2 This poem was written by Trakl in 1913, this was his final poem as he committed suicide (cocaine
overdose) in November 1914
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Examples of expressionist art:
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A brief history of expressionism:
Expressionism emerged simultaneously in various cities across Germany as a response to a
widespread anxiety about humanity's increasingly discordant relationship with the world and
accompanying lost feelings of authenticity and spirituality. In part a reaction against
Impressionism and academic art, Expressionism was inspired most heavily by the Symbolist
currents in late nineteenth-century art. Vincent van Gogh, Edvard Munch, and James Ensor
proved particularly influential to the Expressionists, encouraging the distortion of form and
the deployment of strong colours to convey a variety of anxieties and yearnings. The classic
phase of the Expressionist movement lasted from approximately 1905 to 1920 and spread
throughout Europe. Its example would later inform Abstract Expressionism, and its influence
would be felt throughout the remainder of the century in German art. It was also a critical
precursor to the Neo-Expressionist artists of the 1980s.3
The key ideas within the movement:
The arrival of Expressionism announced new standards in the creation and judgment
of art. Art was now meant to come forth from within the artist, rather than from a
depiction of the external visual world, and the standard for assessing the quality of a
work of art became the character of the artist's feelings rather than an analysis of the
composition.
Expressionist artists often employed swirling, swaying, and exaggeratedly executed
brushstrokes in the depiction of their subjects. These techniques were meant to convey
the turgid emotional state of the artist reacting to the anxieties of the modern world.
3 Information taken from: http://www.theartstory.org/movement-expressionism.htm
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Through their confrontation with the urban world of the early twentieth century,
Expressionist artists developed a powerful mode of social criticism in their serpentine
figural renderings and bold colours. Their representations of the modern city included
alienated individuals - a psychological by-product of recent urbanization - as well as
prostitutes, who were used to comment on capitalism's role in the emotional
distancing of individuals within cities.4
4 Information also taken from the aforementioned website
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