Expressionism In Frankenstein Book Cover, By Lynd Ward

EXPRESSIONISM

Expressionism started as a way to push out the ideas of impressionist art. The art movement focused on the “impression” of emotion instead of an actual historic representation. Expressionism can often be described as “an artistic style in which the artist attempts to depict not objective reality but rather the subjective emotions and responses that objects and events arouse in him” (artmovements.co). There is a strong and consistent use of wide brush strokes, abstract scenes, vibrant color pallets and distortion over the traditional paintings and illustrations seen prior to this movement.

Expressionism originally began in the early 1900’s in Germany, but forms of expressionism can still be found today all over the world. The Frankenstein book cover by Lynd Ward is a great example of illustration and expressionism merging together. The piece which was originally created as a wood carving shows a half man/half creature being washed up onto shore. It is clear that this figure is in some form of pain or suffering, and while the piece is black and white,

The movement was made most popular by Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein. Pop art used influences from the everyday world including the prints of advertisements, movie photos or even every-day ordinary objects and turn it into art. The workings of this style of art were very simplistic and straight forwards, often times criticized for possessing no form of tradition art form what-so-ever. A great definition I found, describes Pop Art as; “creating paintings or sculptures of mass culture objects and media stars, the Pop art movement aimed to blur the boundaries between "high" art and "low" culture. The concept that there is no hierarchy of culture and that art may borrow from any source has been one of the most influential characteristics of Pop