4/02 Impressionism to post-impressionism

1874: first impressionist exhibition opens 15 April in a studio space once occupied by Nadar.

1886: the opening

There is a fracture in initial network of impressionist painters. some artists want to keep experimenting and pushing the ideas of impressionism more intensely, seeing where this can go. some of the initial core are successful, Manet and Renoir, and so want to keep doing what they are doing.

Foundations of Neo-Impressionist Moment:

Georges Seurat, A Sunday on La Grande Jatte

  • a park space (Parisian greenery). some in fancy dress vs. gentleman in lower left who is much more casually dressed. really trying to show all walks of Parisian life.

  • Pointillism : painterly technique involving the application of small dots or dabs of color

    • building on ideas of optic theory: how our eyeballs work

    • from the distance the work comes together as a unique unified whole but the closer we get to the composition the more the individual dots become clear

    • color theory as well : colors coming together in different zones of the work are highly distinct: closer you get the more disparate the colors in each area become.

  • The technical distinction and inspiration to push the bounds of color move this into Neo-impressionism

  • impressionists were not really engaged in intense contemplation of ideas of color and not really thinking about the perception of color in the same way

Paul Cezanne, The Basket of Apples

  • element of form

  • not pointillism but broad brushstroke: tangible and convey broad fields of color that coke together in these different zones of the composition

  • what happens when we try to showcase different perspectives in one

Vincent Van Gogh, Flowering Plum Orchard (after Hiroshige)

  • Hiroshige “Plum Orchard, Kameido” : bold-line work combines with subtle washes of color

  • building upon some of the same influences that influenced impressionists : fascination with Japanese printmaking

Vincent Van Gogh, Self Portrait

  • his style of drawing changes so rapidly

  • very interested in the idea of visual dialogue with colleagues

  • saw Seurat’s work and starts to emerge with a type of pointillism : thinking about ideas of blending of colors. will become very invested in this idea of the play of colors within compositional space.

Van Gogh, Starry Night

  • does not blend but pairs the colors together : comes back to color theory to amplify or intensify the reaction to the image :

  • visualize movement

Van Gogh ,The Night Cafe

  • still thinking about paired brushstrokes

  • but uses colors to jar, to intensify

  • creates a space that is almost overwhelming : jarring colors in and of themselves creates tension, but also layering the colors very intensely: large hunks of paint : weighs the composition down but also creates a sense of texture.

  • different ways to play with color

Vincent Van Gogh, The Bedroom

  • colorful experimentations

  • seemingly arbitrary, eclectic colors — using colors to create an impact

  • expressive of the atmosphere of the room : pairing of brushstrokes creates an energy

  • idea of the surface: layering on the paint thick : playing with the texture or rhythm of the surface

  • pursued Gauguin and tried to convince him to create an artistic sort of co-op

Paul Gauguin, Old Women of Arles, 1888

  • stylistically doing something different but still thinking about ideas of colors, manifests differently in his work

Gauguin, Te Arii Vahine

  • trying to find uncharted visual territory

  • objectified - overly eroticized, many time demeaning - representations

  • increasingly unexpected eclectic colors : energy of the colors

  • thinking about zones of color

  • wife of king presented not in dignified manner but as an object of allure

  • deep-seeded stereotypes re-emerging : composition speaks to belittling of other cultures

Summary:

  • thinking about a similar set of concerns as the impressionists, but experimenting with the relationship of colors

  • color and form to create emotional impacts. evolution from the experimentations and advancements of major figures in the categories

    • van Gogh, Gauguin cultivate an idea of color to create atmosphere - Fauvism Matisse, Expressionism: Kirchner, Kandinsky

    • form : Seurat, cezanne - Cubism Braque