Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History, Essay Example

Abstract Page

This paper explores on what Fauvism is and what it is used for. It explains by who influenced it and what it leads to. It explains Fauvism major contribution towards modern art and why it is so important for artists who use it.

Fauvism Portraits

The first twentieth century movement in modern art was Fauvism, which was originally influenced by the illustrations of Vincent Van Gogh, Paul Gauguin, George Seurat, and Paul Cezanne. Fauvism played a crucial role in the forerun to Cubism and Expressionism as well as example to future modes of abstraction, which we still use today.

Fauvism had various contributions to modern art, but its major contribution was “separating color from its descriptive representational purpose and allowing it to exist on the canvas as an independent element”. Due to Fauvism, the colors illustrated on a painting could project much more than just an image. It could also project a mood and a personal expression. It creates an image within an image. Artists were now allowed to defy the colors of nature and the real world and explore different colors on different images that could never apply to the real world. The combination of colors contributed to the artist views on a subject. A sky could be green and the grass could be blue, the results would be an independent product of an artist impression. Since the practice of Fauvism, two different persons never look at a Fauvism painting the same way. Without the color they would see the same image, but with the addition of the alienated colors, it changes the image into a whole new image. The color changes the mood of the painting allowing it to be dark and gloomy or bright and happy. It could be a mixture of different feelings and emotions in which even the same person might see or feel something different every time they look at the same painting. Fauvism valued individual expression allowing the artist to express him or herself in a free manner. They could be feeling a certain type of way only a clash of colors could explain. They could portrait a direct experience with a subject, or their emotional response on the world and how they felt about it.

Fauvism subjects would focus on the world around them. Landscapes, seascapes, or any figure of nature, but the visual clash of colors and its composition would take over the paintings narrative or symbolism. Instead, artists use their subjects as a guide to the observations of the painting and the inner creative journey of the unnatural colors clashed together and used in the paintings.

Resources

Rewald, S. (2004, October 1). Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. Retrieved June 7, 2015, from http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/fauv/hd_fauv.htm