Major Art Movements and Artists: 19th and 20th Centuries
The Scream by Munch (1893)
The Scream, by Edvard Munch, created in 1893, is an oil on canvas painting housed in the National Museum of Oslo.
Description
In the foreground, a person with hands on their head emits a scream of anguish that seems to be transmitted to the unrealistic environment. This environment is completely subjective, formed by land, sea, and sky, except for the two people at the end of the bridge, who are outside the situation. Color is the predominant element; ranges are contrasted, saturated, without qualification, and create an unsettling and unreal environment, but a very realistic poetic study. No volume is introduced; only the diagonal space gives a sense of depth. In the background, the warm colors of the sky create a feeling of tension. The work as a whole is simple in form and induces a striking effect.
Significance
“I was walking along a path when suddenly the sky turned blood red, and tongues of fire lurked on the dark blue of the fjord, and I stayed in the quiet city, trembling with anxiety. I felt an infinite scream passing through nature. The colors screamed.” In this work, the artist expresses his anguish, loneliness, and fear in the presence of overwhelming nature. For Munch, the most important thing is the idea that the work transmits. His message is always one of anxiety and stress in human relations. He expresses the tragic sense of life and death. He was a painter and engraver who also used the technique of fresco.
Value
Munch continued a path begun in the 16th century by El Greco and followed by Goya and Van Gogh. He is mainly associated with German Expressionism, of which Munch and Ensor are the pioneers. It is characterized by distorting color, shape, and composition to express feelings and emotions of anxiety, fear, and aggressiveness.
Function and Meaning
The Scream is a reflection of the artist’s inner world, full of anguish and suffering.
Major Art Movements of the 19th and 20th Centuries
Impressionism
Impressionism was an art movement that emerged in France in the late 19th century. Artists wanted to capture the fleeting impression of light and the momentary, painting outdoors with inconsequential issues, using a loose, free brushwork, alive with colors.
Cubism
Cubism was an artistic movement of the early 20th century that broke with the traditional idea of art as a representation of nature. Objects are represented as they are known to be and not as they seem, simultaneously in multiple facets, rather than from a single fixed viewpoint. Picasso is the most representative painter, along with his friend Braque. Notable works include Landscape at Horta and Three Musicians.
Expressionism
Expressionism was an avant-garde art movement that emerged in Germany around two groups: Die Brücke (The Bridge, from 1905 to 1913) and Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider, 1911). In 1918, a third outbreak created the Neue Sachlichkeit (New Objectivity) group. It is an expression of the artist’s inner world with its passions and anxieties, hence the distorted shapes and bright colors. Representatives include Kirchner, Marc, Klee, Nolde, and the Swede Munch (The Scream).
Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1944)
This Russian painter created the first abstract watercolor in 1910 when he was part of the German Expressionist group Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider). He sought to express his feelings in his paintings through combinations of lines and colors without worrying about the subject. He lived for several years in Russia, but after the 1917 revolution, he returned to Germany and was a professor at the Bauhaus. He outlined his ideas in On the Spiritual in Art.
Paul Cézanne (1839-1906)
Cézanne was a French Post-Impressionist painter. He created intellectual paintings, seeking to capture the essence of things through the shapes of the sphere, cylinder, and cone. He applied colors (mostly green and ochre) with juxtaposed brushstrokes. He painted many still lifes and landscapes. Among his works are Still Life with Apples, Card Players, The Sainte-Victoire Mountain, and The Great Bathers.
Fauvism
Fauvism was a pictorial movement of the early 20th century characterized by an expressive use of color, violent and arbitrary (fauve means wild beast in French), to express inner feelings, usually pleasant. It was influenced by Van Gogh and Gauguin. Representatives include Matisse (the best), Vlaminck, and Derain.
Henri Matisse (1869-1954)
Matisse was a French painter and sculptor. He was the best representative of Fauvism, a trend that started in 1905. His painting, decorative and cheerful, is characterized by a rich, strong, sensual, and arbitrary color, expressing feelings, and the insignificance of the drawing. He was influenced by Van Gogh, Gauguin, and Eastern exoticism. His works include still lifes, portraits (Woman with the Green Stripe), and paper cut-outs (The Snail).
Pablo Picasso (1881-1973)
Picasso, from Malaga, is considered the most important painter of the 20th century. After initial Symbolist works in Barcelona (blue and pink stages), he invented Cubism (Les Demoiselles d’Avignon) in 1907, breaking with traditional painting. He evolved through Surrealism and Expressionism (Guernica) to a very personal vision of art. He had an enormous influence on contemporary artists.