Module 4

Art Appreciation: The Art

Movements ContinuationPrepared by: Ren Ariel P. Terrado

POST
IMPRESSIONISM
Post Impressionism
was the name given to
several styles of
painting at the end of
the 19th century
which influenced the
direction of art in the
early decades of the
20th century.
Post Impressionism
was not a formal
movement or style.
The Post
Impressionists were a
few independent
artists at the end of the 19th century who rebelled against the limitations of
Impressionism. They developed a range of personal styles that focused on
the emotional, structural, symbolic and spiritual elements that they felt
were missing from Impressionism. Their combined contributions form the
artistic roots of modern art for the next eighty years.

Impressionism was the first movement in the canon of modern art. Like
most revolutionary styles it was gradually absorbed into the mainstream
and its limitations became frustrating to the succeeding generation. Artists
such as Vincent Van Gogh, Paul Cézanne, Paul Gauguin and Georges
Seurat, although steeped in the traditions of Impressionism, pushed the
boundaries of the style in different creative directions and in doing so laid
the foundations for the art of the 20th century. Their name was derived from
the title of the exhibition 'Manet and the Post-Impressionists' which was
organized in London by the English artist and critic Roger Fry in the winter
of 1910-11. For historical convenience these artists have been labeled as
Post Impressionists but, apart from their Impressionist influence, they don't
have that much in common.

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Paul Gauguin (1848-1903)
Cloisonnism, Synthetism and Symbolism were some of the terms associated
with the Post Impressionist paintings of Paul Gauguin in order to
distinguish them from Impressionism.

The term Cloisonnism was coined by the critic Edouard Dujardin and refers
to the jewellery technique of inlaying metal surfaces with 'cloisonné' enamel
colors (the word 'cloison' in French means a 'border'). The decorative effect of
this process resembled the bold outlines and flat color of Gauguin's art.

In Synthetism, the artist's aim was to 'synthetize' his feelings with the
elements of his painting by simplifying its shapes and amplifying its color to
increase its emotional and expressive power. The result was seen as a
symbol of the artist's thoughts and feelings and consequently Gauguin's
style of painting was also referred to as 'Symbolism'.

'The Yellow Christ' is a

classic example of his
style. It depicts some
traditional Breton
women praying at a
roadside grotto but it is
not a documentary
illustration of the
scene; it is an attempt
to portray the spiritual
vision that they
experience in their
prayer. In this painting
Gauguin was inspired
by the naive simplicity
of a wooden 17th
century crucifix that he
saw in the nearby
church at Tremalo and he uses its primitive form and autumnal yellow color
as a key to the work. He then simplifies his drawing, boldly outlines his
shapes and exaggerates his color to magnify the heightened emotion of the
women's prayerful meditation.

Gauguin's work can be split into two phases: an early period spent painting
around the rustic
town of Port Aven in
Brittany; and a later
period (post 1891) in
search of the primitive
lifestyle in Tahiti and
the Marquesas Islands

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in the South Pacific. He fused his symbolic use of colour with images of both
environments to create a highly personal and expressive vision that pushed
art towards the exhilarating style of Fauvism.

Vincent Van Gogh (1853-90)

Vincent Van Gogh

embraced the vivid
color of
Impressionism but
discarded any
Impressionist ideas
about the careful
analysis and effects of
color and light in
nature. This was far
too scientific an
approach for this
temperamental
Dutchman whose gut
instincts were tuned to the expressive power of color. When Impressionism
was filtered through the heightened perception of Van Gogh's vision, the
results pushed art towards Expressionism, an exploration of the spiritual
and emotional side of art.

Paul Cézanne (1839-1906)

Paul Cézanne believed that the Impressionists had lost one of the classical
hallmarks of great art: a structured composition where the visual elements
are carefully refined and balanced to work in harmony with one another. He
felt that the Impressionists' technique was naturally limited, principally
because they had to work so quickly to capture the fleeting effects of
atmospheric conditions. Paul Cézanne wanted to make paintings whose
compositions were more tightly organized and "make of Impressionism
something solid and durable, like the art of the museums ".

He called his pictures

'constructions after
nature' in which
elements from the
three-dimensional
world were translated
into patterns of shapes
and colors arranged
on a flat canvas. The
way that Cézanne
structured and
abstracted his
paintings with

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carefully modulated color pushed art towards the revolutionary style that
was Cubism.

Georges Seurat
(1859-1891)
Georges Seurat's
frustration with the
limitations of
Impressionism,
particularly its lack of
accurate line and
detail, drove him to
develop the technique
of Pointillism or as it
was otherwise called,
Neo-Impressionism.
This was a more
scientific approach to
the mixture of color
which was applied in
small dots of paint that
blended optically when
viewed from a distance.

You often see works by Seurat that look more like Impressionism than
Pointillism. This is because he painted his sketches outside using an
Impressionistic technique to quickly capture the fleeting effects of natural
light and color.

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He would then take these preparatory sketches back to his studio and
rework them using his more methodical Pointillist technique. This allowed
him to take a more considered and classical approach to composition, using
sharper lines and more clearly defined shapes while still retaining the
vitality of Impressionist light and color.

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 Activity
Direction: On your yellow paper. Answer the following questions with
minimum of 3 and a maximum of 6 sentences and write it in a paragraph
form. (20 points each)
1. What is a Post Impressionism?
2. Is Post impressionism a movement formal? Why and why not?
3. Compare and contrast about Cloisonnism and Synthetism