What Is Expressionism, Fauvism & Cubism in Art?
Expressionism, Fauvism and Cubism were avant garde, European-based art movements of the early twentieth century. All three movements rejected traditional realistic approaches to painting in favor of bold new explorations of meaning, form and color.
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How Fauvism Got Its Name
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Paintings featured in a 1905 Paris exhibition shocked viewers with their explosive, nonnaturalistic use of color and form. One critic complained that the young artists painted like "les fauves," which is French for "wild beasts."
Fauvism (1904-1908)
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Leading artists included Matisse, Derain and Vlaminck. Like the earlier Impressionists, the Fauves worked directly from nature. A key difference is the Fauves' belief that a painting should express the individual artist's strong personal feelings about his subject.
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Cubism (1907-1914)
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Led by Picasso and Braque, Cubism was influenced by Cezanne and by a new awareness of African sculpture. The Cubists' primary focus was on an intellectual exploration of geometric structure.
The Cubist Revolution
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The Cubists embraced the two-dimensionality of painting. They deconstructed and flattened objects, and painted them from different viewpoints. A single portrait might show its subject simultaneously from the front and in profile.
Expressionism (1905-1914)
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In Germany, Expressionist painters valued art that expressed the artist's inner state rather than objective depictions of a subject. Artists strove to penetrate beneath the outer form of the world to a hidden inner truth.
Important German Expressionists
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German Expressionism was dominated by several groups, including Der Blaue Reiter (the Blue Rider) and Die Brucke (the Bridge). Individual artists included Franz Marc, Wassily Kandinsky and Georg Grosz.
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