Expressionism

Expressionism



Wassily Kandinsky, Der Blaue Reiter, 1903 (Foundation, 2017).

Expressionism emerged simultaneously in various cities across Germany as a response to a widespread anxiety about man's increasingly discordant relationship with the world and accompanying lost feelings of authenticity and spirituality. Expressionist artists often employed swirling, swaying, and exaggeratedly executed brushstrokes in the depiction of their subjects. These techniques were meant to convey the turgid emotional state of the artist reacting to the anxieties of the modern world (Foundation, 2017). 


Anselm Kiefer, Athanor, 1984. (Foundation, 2017). 

The title of this painting, is also the name for the digesting furnace (a kind of oven) that alchemists used to try to transform base metals into gold. Through the suggestion of the two buildings, and using an apocalyptic palette, Kiefer brings together the themes of alchemy and the Holocaust. The mottled and darkened surface of Kiefer's work looks as if it has been subjected to fire itself (Foundation, 2017).

Sources consulted


Foundation, T. A. S., 2017. Expressionism. [Online]
Available at :http://www.theartstory.org/movement-expressionism.htm 
[Accessed 07 September]

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