Post-Impressionism

• How does Seurat change Impressionism? What are his elements of style?

  • POST-impressionism: individual style moving beyond impressionism (containing NEO-impressionism or pointillism)

    • Formalists: reinstate form 

    • Expressionists: reinstate form AND express emotion

  • Seurat & neo-impressionism: Takes impressionist ideas and REMOVES SPONTANEITY

  • Style: Brush strokes creating small dots of separate colors aka pointillism) 

    • Frozen, static, frontal figures, repeats forms and curves

      • EX: Sunday on La Grande Jatte

• What are Cezanne’s goals in art? What are the elements of his style and what can we learn from looking at his unfinished paintings? How does he approach viewpoint? Who is influenced by Cezanne?

  • Cezanne goals: Focus on FORM and CLARITY - continuous rather than moment in time

  • Style & unfinished work: Worked along vertical/horizontals - early cubism with his blocky geometric shape

    • EX: Mont Sainte-Victoire series (The Mountain)

    • EX: Basket of Apples - creating images from all angles and multiple POVs at once 

  • Viewpoint: Geometric lines and shapes echoing landscape, gridded blocks of color

  • He influences… Picasso!

• What makes Vincent van Gogh’s art so different from Cezanne’s? What is Vincent’s style like? How does he use perspective? What is impasto? Does his Dutch heritage influence him?

  • Differences: Emphasizes subject outlines, uses abstraction to extract emotion

  • Style: POST-impressionist, expressionist, symbolist

    • Staccato brushwork = choppy & applied directly with palette knife

    • Imposto = thick paint buildup, lots of texture

      • EX: Starry Night

  • Perspective: Sucks audience in by exaggerating space

    • EX: The Night Cafe - bold contrasting colors, creepy claustrophobia

  • Dutch Heritage: creates several vanitas paintings 

    • EX: Sunflowers - symbol of faithful friendship, dying flowers = death, vanitas reference

• Know Munch’s style and themes. Does he reflect any ideas current at the end of the 19th century? 

  • Style & themes: Focus on sex, alienation, death/sickness

    • EX: Death of Marat - thick, colorful brushstrokes, focus on woman and her sexuality

      • Based on David’s Death of Marat

    • EX: The Scream - forced perspective with red (representing mental illness, blood) to pull us in, energy of clouds enhance “mood” of piece

  • Ideas: A reaction to the industrial revolution - everyone moving country → city

• What styles influenced Klimt? What material is added to his paintings? What is a symbolist and how does the Kiss fit that category?

  • Inspired by… art nouveau, symbolism, expressionism, byzantine mosaics

    • Art nouveau: handmade & natural art, clear distinctive lines

  • Materials: Added shimmering gold leaf

    • EX: Portrait of Adele - curving, flowing lines, vibrant colors, idea of femininity 

    • EX: The Kiss - idea of union

  • Symbolism: Each painting with its own specific visual “symbolic equivalents”

Klimt & symbolism: EX The Sunflower representing life rather than vanitas death