Overview

Impressionism was about the eye (how light hits an object). Expressionism was about the gut (how the object makes you feel). Originating in Germany before WWI, it was a reaction against the stiff, polite society of the Kaiser. Artists felt anxious, alienated, and angry. They painted the world not as it looked, but as it felt—twisted, colored by fear or ecstasy.

Core Idea

The core idea is Subjectivity. The artist’s inner emotion is more important than the outer reality. If I feel the city is a nightmare, I will paint the streets red and the faces green. I will distort the perspective to make the buildings look like they are falling on you.

Formal Definition

An artistic style in which the artist seeks to depict not objective reality but rather the subjective emotions and responses that objects and events arouse within a person.

Intuition

Think of a horror movie. When the monster appears, the camera tilts (Dutch angle), the lighting turns green, and the music screeches. That is Expressionism. It distorts reality to make you feel the character’s fear.

Examples

  • Edvard Munch, The Scream (1893): The precursor to the movement. A figure on a bridge holds his face and screams. The sky is blood red. The landscape swirls like a panic attack. It is the Mona Lisa of anxiety.
  • Ernst Ludwig Kirchner: Painted the streets of Berlin. The women look like jagged, sharp dolls. The colors are acidic (sickly yellows and pinks). It captures the frenetic, decadent energy of the modern city.
  • Egon Schiele: Painted self-portraits that look emaciated, twisted, and sexually raw. He treated the human body as a landscape of pain.

Common Misconceptions

  • It’s just “being expressive”: All art is expressive. “Expressionism” (capital E) is a specific historical movement characterized by angst, distortion, and harsh colors.
  • It’s ugly: It often is ugly on purpose. They rejected the “beauty” of the Academy because they felt it was a lie. They wanted the “truth,” even if it was ugly.
  • Die Brücke (The Bridge): The group in Dresden (Kirchner) that wanted to bridge the past and the future. They were raw and primitive.
  • Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider): The group in Munich (Kandinsky) that was more spiritual and abstract.
  • Degenerate Art: The Nazis hated Expressionism. They held an exhibition in 1937 mocking it as the work of madmen and Jews, and destroyed thousands of works.

Applications

  • Cinema: “German Expressionist Cinema” (The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Nosferatu) used painted sets with impossible angles and heavy shadows. This style heavily influenced Film Noir and Tim Burton.
  • Dance: Mary Wigman and the “Ausdruckstanz” (Expressionist Dance) movement focused on raw, jerky emotional movement rather than balletic grace.

Criticism / Limitations

  • Solipsism: It can be so focused on the artist’s own misery that it becomes hard for the viewer to connect.
  • Hysteria: It operates at a pitch of high screaming emotion that can be exhausting.

Further Reading

  • Selz, Peter. German Expressionist Painting. 1957.
  • Gordon, Donald. Expressionism: Art and Idea. 1987.
  • Willett, John. Expressionism. 1970.