Vincent Van Gogh and the Expressionism
Expressionism started during the same in most
cities across Germany as a response to a widespread anxiety about man's
increasingly discordant relationship with the world, his lost feelings of
authenticity and spirituality. In part a reaction against Impressionism and
academic art, it was inspired most by the expressive and Symbolist currents in
late nineteenth century art. Vincent van Gogh, Edvard Munch, and James Ensor
proved particularly influential on the Expressionists, and encouraged them to
abstract forms and employ strong colours to convey a variety of anxieties and
yearnings also seen as being expressive; the art work is now seen as being
personal. The classic phase of the movement lasted from approximately 1905 to
1920, and spread across Europe. Its example would later inform Abstract
Expressionism, and its influence would be felt throughout the century in German
art. It was also important for the Neo-Expressionism of the 1980s.
Key
Points of the expressionist movement
1.
One of the most influential groups of this movement/art style was
the Die Brücke (
the bridge), founded in Dresden by
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff and others. Their move to Berlin
in 1910 prompted a new confrontation with the modern, urban world, and led them
to develop powerful social criticism.
2.
The Expressionists gathered around the Munich-based Der Blaue Reiter group
were also significant in lending a mystical and spiritual cast to
Expressionism. This was important in shaping the work of Franz Marc and Alexej
von Jawlensky, and led to the development of pure abstraction by Wassily
Kandinsky.
Two of the most influential artist of
this movement include Edvard Munch and Vincent Van Gogh which I’ll be
discussing in detail.
Vincent Van Gogh
Van Gogh was born
in 1853, in the Netherlands in Holland. Van Gogh was born
in 1853 and grew up in Holland. He was raised in a religious family with his father
being a minister. When he finished school, Vincent followed his uncle’s
profession and became an art dealer learning the trade in artworks in his birth
place Holland and then working in England and France.
Vincent became a
successful and initially happy with his work. He soon became tired of the
business of art and lost interest in the trade. After returning home, Vincent
began to study theology. While very passionate and enthusiastic, he failed exams
to enter a couple programs. During this period, he worked as a missionary in a
coal mining community living with hard working poor common people. As his
development as a preacher was stalling, his interest in those around him was
increasing. His life as an artist was beginning.
At the age of 27,
Van Gogh entered the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, Belgium. The
following winter, living in Amsterdam, Vincent fell in love, had his heart
broken, and began painting. The next few years would result in little success
both in love and art.
He painted his
first major work Potato Eaters in 1885. By this time, he was still having
difficulty finding love, but was beginning to receive interest in his
paintings. He was now fully devoting himself to painting. His paintings were
difficult to sell.
Vincent moved to
Paris where his art began to take on the style that would make him famous. In
Paris, he was discussing art with some of the most avant-garde and influential
artists of his time – painters like Gauguin, Bernard, and Toulouse-Lautrec. He
was using more colour, applying the paint with thick, bold brushstrokes (called
impasto), and painted all that surrounded him. Van Gogh arranged to show his
work, to positive reviews, but was still unable to sell any pieces.
Vincent moved to
Arles where he was joined by Gauguin. While he was there, Van Gogh entered the
most productive and creative period of his life painting his famous sunflower.
It was also a terrible time for Vincent, he to spend more time in the hospital,
as this was a period of hospital stays for mental illness and physical decline.
Vincent had an eccentric personality and unstable moods, suffered from
recurrent psychotic episodes during the last 2 years of his extraordinary life,
and committed suicide at the age of 37.
After just ten
years of painting and producing some 900 paintings, Vincent van Gogh took his
own life in 1890. Never fully appreciated in his own time, it wouldn’t take
long for the art world to recognize the genius they lost.
Examples of his work
The potato
eaters
The starry night
Self-portrait
