Unit 8: Post-Impressionism

1880-1910

time period of Post Impressionism (The rise of modernism)

____-____ CE Late 19th and Early 20th

optical reality “played out"

context:

• Impressionist aesthetic exhausted- _____________________

elements of art, style, techniques

context:

• Experimentation with primary ___________, painting _____ and art _________

imagination

context:

• exploring the world of _________

personal view

context:

_____________ of the artist primary- move away from naturalism and realism

Political

context:

_________ sub-text to work

Art for arts sake

context:

______________- one of the Central investigation: how to make a truly modern art?

Variety of Styles of painting

-paintings become formal exercises rather than records of visual reality

-the artist’s individual technique becomes a preocupation

Variety of influences on artists styles

• medieval art (Bernard, Gauguin)

• Japanese art-prints (Van Gogh)

• commercial art/ posters (Toulouse-Lautrec)

• Exotic cultures of Tahiti (Gaugin)

Political and social undercurrents to work

-fascination with peoples that art not modern (Bretons, Tahitians)

-alienation of modern cities and societies

Varied subject matter of painting

• the exotic

• the fringes of modern cities

• the fringes of night life

Seurat, Subjects

artist chart:

Leisure activities in Paris

Seurat, Signature

artist chart:

Bright colors in tiny dots (pointillism)

Seurat, Moods

Scientific, logical

Seurat, Concerns

artist chart:

System of optical blending in eye of beholder

TOULOUSE-LAUTREC, Subjects

artists chart:

Cabaret nightlife

TOULOUSE-LAUTREC, Signature

artist chart:

First art posters used for publicity

TOULOUSE-LAUTREC, Moods

artist chart:

Decadent, hectic

TOULOUSE-LAUTREC, Concerns

artist chart:

End of century

Feeling of discomfort

Cezanne, subjects

artist chart:

Still life with fruit, landscapes of Mont Ste-Victoire 

Cezanne, Signature

artist chart:

Proto-Cubist stress on geometric structure

Cezanne, Moods

artist chart:

Analytical, stable

Cezanne, Concerns

artist chart:

Underlying permanent order

Gauguin, Subjects

artist chart:

Tahiti natives, peasants in Brittany

Gauguin, Signature

artist chart:

Exotic primitivism

Gauguin, Moods

artist chart:

Symbolic, mysterious

Gauguin, Concerns

artist chart:

Brilliant color to express emotion

Van Gogh, Subjects

artist chart:

Self-portraits, landscapes, still life

Van Gogh, Signature

Artist chart:

agitated, swirling, brush strokes

Van Gogh, Moods

artist chart:

Passionate, vibrant

Van Gogh, Concerns

Emotional reaction to subject through color, brushwork

Paul Cezanne

“I want to make Impressionism something solid and durable, like out of museums.”

He sought to achieve..

•  1. illusionistic form.

•  2.  strong compositional structure in 2D 

• His frustration with Impressionism:

• -Impressionist did not create paintings strong in composition

• -not interested in painting 3D objects Cezanne     

    wrote:

                                                “In art, everything is theory, developed                            and applied in contact with nature.”

Complementary colors

Green Vs. red

Minor artists

Signac

Bernard

Bonnard

Vuillard

Sisley

Denis

George Seurat, A Sunday on La Grande Jatte, 19th century

Paul Cezanne, Mont Sainte-Victoire, 1902 CE,

Vincent Van Gogh Sel portrait, 19th century

Vincent Van Gogh, Landscape, 19th centruy

Vincent Van Gogh, Starry Night, 19th century

VIncent Van Gogh, The night Cafe, 19th century

Paul Gauguin, Where do we come from? What are We? Where are we going?, 19th century

Toulouse-Lautrec, At the Moulin Rouge, 19th century