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Expression theory of art
Abstract expressionism analysis essay
Abstract expressionism
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Between the nineteenth and twentieth century came a time of self-expression and reflection. This time became known as the Expressionism movement and focused on boldly creating a personal and emotional experience through art. Conventional artistic stylings were cast aside as each artist discovered their own creative voice. Artists of all mediums emphasized state of mind and the essence of the human condition through bold representations of their own psyche. Edvard Munch’s painting, “The Scream” and Fritz Lang’s film, “Metropolis,” both convey aggressive emotional characteristic of the Expressionist movement through exaggerated compositional elements, distorted stylistic choices and evocative technique.
Edvard Munch’s, “The Scream,” depicts a man’s inward scream in his piece in an unorthodox, provocative way through compositional choices. Munch reveals that his inspiration for his famous painting derived from an experience “walking with two friends . . . suddenly the sky turned blood-red. . . my friends walked on, and there I still stood, trembling with fear - and I sensed an endless scream passing through nature” (Munch)1. Munch’s experience contains an essence of melancholy with looming undertones of reclusiveness and hostility through bold color and harsh lines throughout the entire piece. The directness of Munch’s subject matter is bold as viewers relate to this “endless scream” that is so part of the natural element of the human condition (Munch). There is not an individual on this earth who has yet to feel completely overwhelmed and trapped in his or her life. Every person possesses an inner scream that their insecurities hide from society. Acting on such a natural reaction is typically looked down upon in our day yet not f...
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... the viewer and the artist. Munch’s “The Scream,” portrays a figure so lost in life that he feels the haunting scream of nature building within him. While this may seem like such a personal moment that it is nearly provocative, the painting captures the essence of the absoluteness that is the human condition. Fritz Lang similarly portrays expressive feeling in his film, “Metropolis” through the composition of cinematography, stylistic choices of design and character development. In an exaggerated form, the film scrutinizes a powerful dystopian society and discovers the true essence of being human. No matter the medium, viewers are strongly taken aback by how personal and emotional the pieces are. Both Fritz Lang’s film, “Metropolis,” and Munich’s painting, “The Scream,” the Expressionist movement is effectively reflected due to the intense focus on personal emotion.
In Mary Shelley’s novel, Frankenstein, she exercises this movement by painting artistic and literary illustrations of how Victor, as well as the Monster lives through seasonal and surrounding areas. Shelley shows the complex emotional state found in Victor and the Monster.
In 1927, German Director, Fritz Lang, directed the film Metropolis. Metropolis takes places in a futuristic city sharply divided between the working class and the city planners, the son of the city 's mastermind falls in love with a working class prophet who predicts the coming of a savior to mediate their differences. Through this film, Lang attempts to shed light on the discomfort brought upon by the evolution of traditional gender roles, ultimately shaming the expressionism society for their black and conceptions of femininity and sexuality. The significance of archetypes of femininity, the relationship between femininity and technology, and lastly the relationship between politics, sexuality and femininity in Metropolis prove that the
The German Expressionism was a period that came following the devastation of World War I, it came when the people of Germany needed something to claim as their own. The expressionism movement gave Germany just that; it helped them not only in the filmmaking industry, but also in their personal lives. The German Expressionism changed the way we look at and view films. The German Expressionism altered, for the better, the way that films were made back then and the way that they are made today.
The German Expressionist movement was a number of movements that began in Germany during the start of the 20th century. It mainly dealt with poetry, painting, art and cinema. The success of expressionist films helped Germany seen as the most technically advanced in the world. The expressionist style can be...
The link between expressionism and horror quickly became a dominant feature in many films and continues to be prominent in contemporary films mainly due to the German expressionist masterpiece Das Kabinett des Doctor Caligari. Wiene’s 1920 Das Kabinett des Doctor Caligari utilized a distinctive creepiness and the uncanny throughout the film that became one the most distinctive features of externalising inner mental and emotional states of protagonists through various expressionist methods. Its revolutionary and innovative new art was heavily influenced by the German state and its populace in conjunction with their experience of war; Caligari took a clear cue from what was happening in Germany at the time. It was this film that set cinematic conventions that still apply today, heavily influencing the later Hollywood film noir genre as well as the psychological thrillers that has led several film audiences to engage with a film, its character, its plot and anticipate its outcome, only to question whether the entire movie was a dream, a story of a crazy man, or an elaborate role play. This concept of the familiar and the strange, the reality, the illusion and the dream developed in Das Kabinett des Doctor Caligari, is once again present in Scorsese’s 2010 film Shutter Island.
How does the composer Fritz Lang represent contextual issues and concerns in his film Metropolis? Fritz Lang’s 1927 didactic film Metropolis explores the ramifications of mankind’s hubris and hunger for power, and its consequences on humanity. Fritz Lang excoriates Weimar Republic Zeitgeist; its industrialised and capitalist values: humanity’s willingness to sacrifice basic human rights (e.g. personal freedom) in exchange for power and materialistic wealth, and Weimar’s dictatorial totalitarian regime. Lang emphasises the requirement for equilibrium between the working class and the elite to prevent a cataclysmic milieu, based on observations of his own Weimar epoch.
In 1885, Munch won a scholarship to study in Paris. While in France, he began working on his realistic approach, and completed, “The Sick Child,” which was a piece reflecting on the devastating death of his sister, Sophie. He continued on with this expressionism based on painful personal experiences, and received a great amount of negative criticism.
When audiences think of Lang's Metropolis they almost unanimously think of the same image: that of a golden, mechanical being brought to life. It is one of the most recognizable images in German expressionist cinema, on par with the spidery shadow of Max Schrek's Nosferatu creeping up the stairs in Murnau's vampire film, or that of Cesare the somnambulist sleeping upright in Weine's The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, yet what separates this i...
Metropolis is a silent film written by Thea Von Harbou in 1927, and directed by Fritz Lang. This film was very significant for its time. Although it had very mixed reviews by critics, it pioneered the work of the science fiction genre. The film also gained recognition by political leaders, such as Adolf Hitler, for recognizing the divides between the working class and the aristocracy. The divide between the working class and the aristocracy was the most significant idea I took away from this silent film.
The neo-expressionist movement in America lasted from the late 70s and came to an end in the early 90s. The movement was a revival of expressionism, a style in which an artist portrays emotional experience into their work (Sandler, 227). It was also a response to the popular art style of the time called minimalism, which involved mostly blank canvases or lines. Neo-expressionism, on the other hand, was raw emotion and chaos. The main figures of the movement were Julian Schnabel, David Salle, and Ada Applebroog. A pioneer of the movement, and also the focus of this essay, is Jean-Michel Basquiat. His art referenced many famous artists and art pieces, from which he found inspiration. This inspiration was one of the features that made the movement
In the piece “The Scream,” by Edvard Munch, he painted a piece that evoked emotions from the viewers. He created a mysterious individual who appeared to be overwhelmed with unknown feelings. The individual was far
Edvard Munch - angst / anxiety." ARoS Aarhus Kunstmuseum - Oplevelser i Aarhus. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Sept. 2013.< http://www.aros.dk/besoeg-aros/udstillinger/2012/edvard-munch-angst-anxiety/
The Pop Art Movement Pop art got its name from Lawrence Alloway, who was a British art critic in the 1950’s. The name “Pop Art” reflected on the “familiar imagery of the contemporary urban environment” (kleiner, 981). This art form is popular for its bold and simple looks plus its bright and vibrant colors. An example of this type of art is the oil painting done by Andy Warhol, “Marilyn Diptych” (Warhol, Marilyn Diptych) in 1962. The Pop art movement became known in the mid-1950s and continued as a main type of art form until the late 1960’s.
Pop art is an art movement that questions the traditions of fine art and incorporates images from popular culture. Neo-Dada is an art trend that shares similarities in the method and/or intent to Dada art pieces. Both these movements emerged around the same time periods in history, the 1950s and 1960s, and artists from both generally got their inspiration from the Dada movement, which developed in the early 20th century. The movement altered how people viewed art, and it presented a variety of new methods and styles. Dada artists, also known as Dadaists, believed in showing their anti-war beliefs through their artwork. The Dada movement produced a different style of art, and pieces created controversy because they were outside the realm of what society considered art and what was expected and acceptable. This set in motion a chance for artists to be able to create the kind of artwork that inspires them, even though it was considered unorthodox. Even though they were controversial, many pieces that were created during Dada heavily influenced other styles of art to come after, such as Neo-Dada and Pop art. The influence of Dada can be seen in Robert Rauschenberg’s work, who was a Neo-Dadaist, and it can also be seen through Andy Warhol’s work, a Pop artist. Even though Dada affected both artists, they created very different pieces. This paper will analyze Warhol’s Campbell’s Soup Cans and Rauschenberg’s White Painting (Three Panel) and discuss how they were impacted differently by the Dada movement, and why they are each considered to be different styles of artwork. The time in history of each artist was the same, and the same movement influenced them both, but the outcome of the art that they each created was incredibly different....
The expressionist movement in German art and cinema was very sensitive to the current state of the country after a huge worldwide conflict. Prior to the rise of the next Nazi Regime, German filmmakers incorporated many aspects to their films that had never been used together before this period of time. M is no exception to