Post-Impressionism (Unit 2)

Roger Fly

The British art critic who coined the term “post-impressionism”

Post-Impressionism

A catch-all term for the movement of artists who followed in the wake of Impressionism. More concerned with formal ideas

Post-Impressionists

None identified with the term. There was less unity among them compared to Impressionists. Have a more calculated style compared to Impressionists

form and color

The two separate elements of art that post-impressionists took interest in, resulting in different experimentations with art

Cezanne, Van Gogh, and Gaugin

The big three for post-impressionism

form

What Cezanne took interest in more than any other post-impressionist. Seurat also took interest in this

color

What van Gogh and Gauguin took interest in experimenting with

Cezanne

Always remained a radical on the outskirts of the formal art world

20th century abstract art

Takes the most from Cezanne and Manet’s art. The forerunners of this style

logic and emotion, reason and irrationality

What Cezanne sought to combine

the world based on his perspective

What Cezanne is representing in his works rather than making a claim to naturalism and realism

Romanticism + Impressionism

An equation to describe the style of post-impressionism

the individual and emotions

These obsessions of romanticism return and are combined with impressionism to create post-impressionism

romantic impulse

This returns to the art world during post-impressionism

perpetual mechanisms

What Cezanne was excited in exploring. Explored how people saw the world and made sense of it

Delacroix

Whom Cezanne cited as a key artistic touchstone

contrary to the establishment

How Cezanne began his career. This institution loathed him

Napoleon III

The emperor who set up the Salon de Refuses and could generally understand impressionism. Hated Cezanne

establishment

Could appreciate the impressionists but never liked Cezanne

landscapes, nudes, and still lifes

The three subjects in Cezanne’s works where he messes around with various different concepts

repeating the same subject in different paintings

An act that Cezanne was fond of

contemporary French art critic quote

Succinctly describes his artistic process. “A man, a tree, an apple are not represented but used by Cezanne in the building up a painterly thing called a picture.” Demonstrated that Cezanne is interested in how forms create a picture and not depicting them accurately

color hatching

Element in Cezanne’s work that plays off the dark and light and gives the piece a sense of structure and density

blocky, geometric patches

How Cezanne built up his colors

sense of form

Cezanne implying mountains, trees, and houses in his piece, Mont St. Victoire

flatness

A key element to Cezanne’s works, achieved through equally-stressed foregrounds and backgrounds, small and flat brushstrokes, and a lack of depth

illusion of depth

A core element of art since the Renaissance that is now being rejected

art as a window

A persistently-understood metaphor from the Early Renaissance. Rejected by Post-Impressionism

carefully-arranged, planned brush strokes

How Cezanne composed his pieces despite how gestural and spontaneous they appear

sheet music vs. recorded piece

A metaphor to better understand how Cezanne wanted his work to be experienced. Like other abstract art, it relies on the viewer to do some of the intellectual legwork, and not everything is spelled out

unique interpretation

The concept that every viewer will have a subtly different experience taking in the work / composing it in their heads. A big idea for abstract art

cerebral intellectual experience

How Cezanne intended his work to be seen, his thought process differing from more concise artists like Raphael. Wanted people to more consciously consume his art

formal experimentation

Evident in Cezanne’s landscape paintings

nudes

Much of Cezanne’s experimentation with these are applicable in his landscapes

deliberate and calculated

Cezanne more prominently exhibited these traits than Impressionist artists

limits of painting

What Cezanne was interested in. His concerns were of a formal nature

capturing objects in their entirety

The problem Cezanne addressed with his still lifes. Showing all angles of an object at once

naturalistic, real, and mimetic

The expectations of painting that post-impressionists challenge by making it clear that the painting is a painting

representing an objective view of the world

The pursuit that Cezanne declares is impossible

Still Life With Basket of Apples

A Cezanne still life with evidence his experimentations with indicating three-dimensionality with a two-dimensional medium

mixed perspective

Showing multiple sides of an object where it would typically be impossible, such as the cookies, basket, and folds of the cloth in Cezanne’s Still Life With Basket of Apples

physical constraints

What artists since Giotto have been working against. Cezanne abandoned that resistance completely and instead worked with it

bold outlines

What Cezanne’s works often lacked, opting for contrasting colors to create roundness and form

painting

What Cezanne was making art about. Why he is considered a pioneer of later 20th century and abstract art

Critical ideas to 20th century modern art

Issues of flatness, the destruction of the metaphor of art as a window, the use of color instead of line to create form, mixing different perspectives, and emphasizing flatness

Seurat

Other Post-Impressionist who experimented with form

The Law of Simultaneous Contrast of Colors

A theoretical issue involving perception that Seurat obsessed over. The idea that two colors placed beside each other impose their own complementary colors on one another

pointillist style

Seurat’s way of painting. A mosaic-like approach using very small dots of color instead of line to produce form

Sunday on La Grande Jatte

A piece by Seurat that takes similar subject matter from Renoir’s pieces - leisure in an outdoor park - but decidedly more focused on using color to create form

using color to create form

What Cezanne and Seurat were interested in doing with their experimentations with form

using color to provoke an emotional response

What van Gogh and Gauguin were interested in doing with their experimentations with color

intensely romanticized

The state of van Gogh and his art following his life. Interferes with understanding what his work was trying to do

the mystical side

The aspect of religion that van Gogh took interest in

Japanese print

In the background of van Gogh’s self-portrait. Collected them and thought they were wonderful

itinerant preacher

What van Gogh wanted to be early on

adventures

In these, van Gogh explored the lifestyle of going out and walking around the countryside, talking to people and spreading the good word

lower-class people

The first subjects of van Gogh’s

little moralizing and politicalness

The element of van Gogh’s works that set him apart from naturalists

a traditional culture uncontaminated by the modern world

What van Gogh was always in search of

outside of modern life

Where van Gogh desired to be, despite his associated with modern art

exploring the peasants of the land

One way in which van Gogh sought to remove himself from modern life

green and yellow tones

The colors van Gogh used in Potato Eaters, giving the piece a sickly, emaciated feel. Used to provoke an emotional response from the viewer

Noon: Rest after Work (After Millet)

A piece by van Gogh in response to Millet’s original

tension between colors

What Noon: Rest after Work (After Millet) is focused on rather than the peasants depicted. The oranges of the field contrast with the cooler tones of the workers and the sky

boring and awful

van Gogh’s opinion of academic classes

gentle, romantic images

The pieces van Gogh made of rural life informed by his opinions toward poor and rural people. Differed from realism and Courbet in this sense

Charles Dickens

Whom van Gogh was a fan of. Advocated for better treatment of poor and rural people. Influenced his perception of said people

an extension of himself and his emotions

How van Gogh saw color

Starry Night

Easily van Gogh’s best-known work

impasto

The technique van Gogh used in his Starry Night. A very thick layer of paint built up. Cleary inspired by Rembrandt, another Dutch artist who pioneered the technique

inner turmoil

What van Gogh’s Starry Night represents gesturally through its swirly strokes. A projection of himself onto the landscape

sanatorium

Where van Gogh was staying after unfortunate incidents in his life. Where he painted Starry Night after being overtaken by emotions while looking out the window

romantic tones

Impossible to escape these when discussing van Gogh’s Starry Night

contemporary view of Starry Night

Often devalues the work as a commodified image and fails to recognize the psychological tensions, emotional intensity, and intimacy in the rhythmic patterns of the piece

Gauguin

Had a lust for life, infamous for his drinking and fighting lifestyle

Oral

Where van Gogh and Gauguin lived together briefly

slicing off his ear

What van Gogh did largely because of Gauguin

an entirely subjective abstraction

What Gauguin believed art to be, disregarding pursuits to represent things objectively

movement away from modern life

What van Gogh and Gauguin are a part of, contrasting Impressionists’ celebration of urbanism and modern life

true humanity

What Gauguin was in search of. Sought out isolated religious communities and later Tahiti, seeing them as primitive and “savage.”

primitive, savage mankind

How Gauguin saw isolated religious communities. What much of his work is about

artifice of modern life

What Gauguin wanted to strip away from his own work

universal language

By stripping away artificiality and what he deemed unnecessary details, Gauguin believed his art could speak this and be understood by everyone

formal training

What Gauguin lacked, having left his job and impulsively picked up painting. May have influenced his opinion regarding artificial, unnecessary details that dilute the messages of works

Tahiti

The country that Gauguin left France for, believing France to not be primitive enough for him

eradication of Tahitian culture

The attempt by France to do this greatly angered Gauguin, as he saw it as the destruction of a source of artistic inspiration for him

complexity

How Gauguin is simultaneously an invaluable source for leaning about Tahitian culture and also an imperialist who preyed on the people there

Spirit of the Dead Watches

A depiction of Gauguin’s teenage lover

spirit of death

Inspired by an alleged experience he had with her, this is present in the background of Spirit of the Dead Watches

everything having spiritual meaning

An aspect of Tahitian culture that Gauguin loved

life and death

Gauguin believed Tahitian culture had struck a balance between these two things

death

Gauguin believed western culture focused too much on this

Ingres and Manet

Artists who were equally influential in building up to Gauguin’s reclining female nude, demonstrating the impact of abstract art