Modernism: Expressionism and Fauvism

1900s-1930s

Time period of early 20th century modern art, up to the second world war

Harper’s Weekly

19th century - early 20th century political cartoon

The World’s Plunderers

Harper’s Weekly cartoon discussing the expansion of the colonial project and capitalism (3 words)

getting smaller

With more and more cultures and countries coming into contact with each other, the effect was that the world seemed to be ______ (2 words)

1900

The year of electricity

1920

The year of penicillin, pasteurization, and cars

pre-internet to post-internet world

Metaphor for how different the world became with technology introduced in the early 1900s. From gas, lights, and horses to electricity, lightbulbs, and cars (_ to _)

WWI

The other major pivot point, throwing all modern life into question. Early modern artists were often involved in some way

global superpower

America arrives on the scene as a ____ (2 words) following WWII and its involvement in turning the tide of WWI

wars of attrition

What came about during WWI. Mass casualties. Attempting to break stalemates and sucking every facet of the other nation into conflict to destroy it. Consequence of incredibly advanced technological weapons (3 words)

trench warfare

Strategy of digging trenches, sitting there, and shooting each other. Anyone attempting escape would be machine gunned (2 words)

aesthetic parents of Modernism

The post-impressionists were ____ (_ of _ - metaphorically)

form and color

The two sides to the tree of post-impressionism: Cezanne and van Gogh respectively (_ and _)

major shows

Cezanne and van Gogh were involved in a multitude of these over the years, spanning 1899-1907 for the former and 1901 and 1905 in for the latter

expressionism, fauvism, and cubism

van Gogh and Cezanne were the foundation for these three art forms

movements, collectives

Within the biggest art movements, there are tiny ___ and artist _____, where like-minded artists set up an artist’s group and worked together toward a similar purpose

manifesto

What artist collectives would write and publish - their statement of purpose

laws

Members of artist groups would adhere to self-established ___ in their pursuit of a singular goal

modern and avant garde

Many movements were both of these (art terms) at once

present life

Movements at this time concerned themselves with ______, making them modern

pushing art forward

Movements at this time saw themselves as _________ (3 words) and being on the cutting edge of it, making them avant garde

concurrently

Almost all of these movements are happening _____, or around the same time, overlapping with one another

dialogue

How these movements interact with one another. In conversation, putting out statements, responding to them, looking at each other’s work, attacking/accepting it

naturalism

The first modern movement - where the dialogue of modern art began

Die Brucke and The Blue Rider

The two big subsets of expressionism in Germany

Germany

The main country for expressionism

France

The main country for fauvism

“the bridge”

Translation of Die Brucke

Dresden

The city where Die Brucke was based/founded

bridge to the future

The portion of Nietzsche’s philosophy that Die Brucke took inspiration from (_ to the _)

linked together all the revolutionary elements

Die Brucke claimed it was going to be a bridge that ______ (_ all the _) in society

van Gogh

Die Brucke was very much inspired by ____ (artist)

mythic seeker of truth

Die Brucke believed in the artist as a __________ (_ of _)

powerful inner vision

Die Brucke believed the artist is someone driven by a ____, and through that, they are revealing truths about the world

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner

The big name of Die Brucke

sincerity and spontaneity

Kirchner’s Die Brucke manifesto was about “expressing inner convictions with _____” (_ and _)

the primitive

Idea of an alternative to modern life and academic art - to fully express humanity’s state in a more “universal language.” Advocated for by Kirchner and similar artists

modern life

These artists are called “modern” because they were interested in _______ - does not necessarily mean they liked it

impressionists

The artists generally happy with modern life

soulless

Members of Die Brucke - especially Kirchner - wanted their works to expose modern life as ______, approaching it much differently to impressionists

hidden meanings

To uncover _____ (2 words), Kirchner adopted a primitive, jagged style often seen as aggressive

mascullinity

In early 20th century artistic movements, artist creation was tied firmly to conceptions of ____, such as through the sense of the artist as a grand masculine creator or the metaphor of a “red-tipped paintbrush”

chauvinist

There were aggressive _____ sexual politics in a lot of avant garde works

excitement, emotional detachment

There is a debate whether Kirchner’s work was trying to capture _____ or _____ in regards to city/urban life. In many respects, it is both

baser, more primitive

Kirchner believed that living in an urban environment divorced the individual from their true self, removing them from their ______ (1 word, 2 words) instincts

Artist and Model

Piece by Kirchner, example of the artist as a grand masculine creator

Street, Berlin

An example of one of Kirchner’s city paintings

The Street

A piece by Kirchner featuring a young girl celebrating her birthday at a Mexican restaurant, standing in the street alone with bizarre figures and imagery

jarring colors and disgusting color combinations

Kirchner uses ____ to give viewers a sense of unease in The Street

number one artistic idol

van Gogh was Die Brucke’s ______ - arguable that they are the only reason the artist is relevant today in Western history

his brother

Most of van Gogh’s works were collected by ____, and he didn’t go out of his way to sell any paintings

abstraction and expressionism

Kirchner uses _____ (_ and _, different art techniques) to get art to raw, primitive state for a more enormous emotional impact on the viewer

abstraction

Depicting things as they do not look in the real world. Anti-naturalism

Switzerland

Where Kirchner moved after his time in the war where he took his own life

WWI might be good

Recurring trend among early 20th century artists - starting off thinking _______ (_ might be _), getting involved and being killed / irreparably damaged

positive outcomes of WWI

Many artists at this time believed the war could settle down the major superpowers, dominant economic/political style, and other matters of global organization (these are…)

Der Blaue Reiter

German form of The Blue Rider

publish

Anytime you’re in an artistic collective, you had to _____ your work/essays

Franz Marc

The Blue Rider was primarily the work of ______. Not the most famous member, but set its major goals and purposes - the de facto leader

Munich

The city where The Blue Rider was based, Southern Germany. Countryside

Northern vs Southern

Differences between Der Brucke and The Blue Rider can be simplified into _________ (VS) Germany

Stereotype of Northern Germans

Super industrious, hard workers, direct

Stereotype of Southern Germans

Eating Bratwurst and chugging beer

natural spaces

The art of The Blue Rider, based on its location in the countryside, is geared more toward _____

spirituality

With the Blue Rider’s focus on natural spaces came an interest in ______

spiritual, natural

The Blue Rider is all about ___ awakening and ____ experiences

feeling and form

According to Marc, the Blue Rider was trying to find a link between _______ (_ and _) - that form and color can provoke certain feelings

empathy

The members of the the Blue Rider saw abstraction as a way of provoking ____ and invoking a sense of being relatable which allowed it to address spiritual issues

the apocalypse, purifying fire

Marc similarly obsessed over ___ later in his career and the idea that WWI would be a _______ that would cleanse Europe, prompting him to enlist - and resulting in his death

artillery shell

What killed Marc during his time in WWI

Vassily Kandinsky

A Russian man - the most famous Blue Rider member

wealthy Russian

Kandinsky was from a ____ (2 words) family but decided to attend art school in Munich, where he met the Blue Riders

poster boy

Kandinsky rose to prominence as the ___ for Blue Rider ideas

wrote down

Kandinsky’s status as the Blue Rider’s poster boy was largely because he ____ (2 words) his ideas concerning spiritual art

wavelength of neuro electricity

Kaindsky’s quasi-scientific idea that, because wavelengths of light represent different colors, each wavelength also has a different _______ (_ of _), firing different synapses to make us feel/think particular things

synesthesia

The condition that many have argued Kandinsky had - the ability to experience multiple sensations at once, such as hearing colors or tasting sounds

painting and music

Kandinsky was especially interested in the correlation between ____ (_ and _): this idea of colors and forms having a particular sound to him

gravitation toward abstract art

Synesthesia may have contributed to Kandinsky’s _________ (_ toward ___)

the spiritual type

Kandinsky defined his improvisations as “paintings inspired by the events of _____”

Improvisation 28 (second version)

Title of one of Kandinsky’s improvisations - abstractions of Noah’s ark with gears, replacing the old with the new

glyphs

What Kandinsky called the certain symbols he reused in his works repeatedly

titles

Kandinsky often omitted ___ from his pieces to let viewers piece out what it is

non-representational direction

Though starting with abstractions, Kandinsky’s later works go completely into the ______ (2 words)

identifiable subject

In abstract art, there is an ______, regardless of whether it looks natural or real

no identifiable subject

In non-representational art, there is _____

destruction of the world

Kandinsky’s Improvisation 28 (second version) is an image of the ______ (_ of the _) - destruction leading to creation. Pre-WWI ideas going on in modernism

apocalyptic

A lot of Kandinsky’s works have an ____ meaning to them (subject matter)

composition

Of Kandinsky = works that were less spontaneous and more worked out over a series of time

Composition VIII

An example of one of Kandinsky’s compositions - a non-representational work of purely forms, colors, and lines

colors, different wavelengths

Kandinsky’s belief that ____ have ______ to them made his experimentations with basic form, line, and color especially interesting

abstract art to non-representational art

Kandinsky is one of the first artists to make the leap from _____ (___ to ___)

enormous overlap

Fauvism has ____ with expressionism - there were expressionists in France and fauvists in Germany

Fauvist

Kandinsky began his career in Munich as a ___, not adopting Expressionism until associating with the Blue Rider crew

Louis Vauxcelles

The art critic credited with naming Fauvism - translated to “wild beasts” as a way to make fun of the painters

garish colors and violent brush strokes

Vauxcelles believed Fauvists painted like wild beasts with ____ (_ and _)

autumn Salon in 1905

The event where Fauvist works really emerged

outgrowth, independent spirit

When it first got underway, Fauvism was an ____ of the ______ (metaphorical) of Impressionism

alternate routes

Impressionists wanted _____ in exhibiting their work which Fauvism picks up on - when it got started, it was about being an independent movement

Matisse

The best-known Fauvist, considered the leader of Fauvists from the onset

Notes on Painting

The essay Matisse published on his art, proclaiming that modern painting is independent of literature and visual perception, not tied to literature or the natural world