Expressionism is a modernist current that began in northern Europe at the beginning of the 20th century, first in poetry and then in art.
Its distinctive feature is to portray the world in a purely subjective way, dramatically distorting it for emotional effect to evoke feelings or thoughts. Expressionist painters sought to convey the meaning of emotional experience rather than physical truth.
Before World War I, Expressionism emerged as an avant-garde style. It was still popular throughout the Weimar Republic, particularly in Berlin. Expressionist architecture, painting, literature, theatre, dance, film and music were part of the movement.
While the word expressionist can be used for artwork from any era, it is most commonly associated with 20th century art.
It is believed to have started with Vincent Van Gogh and later developed into a major current of contemporary art that included Edvard Munch, Fauvism and Henri Matisse, Georges Rouault, the Brücke and Blauer Reiter groups, Egon Schiele, Oskar Kokoschka, Paul Klee and others. . Max Beckmann, among many others.
The word is often associated with contemporary German art (also known as German Expressionism), particularly the Brücke and Blauer Reiter groups.
After World War II, an abstract style of expressionism known as Abstract Expressionism emerged in the United States.
famous expressionist painters
1.Eduardo Munch

Edvard Munch was a Norwegian painter who lived from December 12, 1863 to January 23, 1944. The Scream (1893), his most famous work, has become an iconic image in the art world.
His childhood was marked by illness, loss, and the fear of inheriting a mental disorder that ran in his family. Munch began living a bohemian life while studying at the Royal School of Art and Design in Kristiania (Oslo) under the influence of the nihilist Hans Jgaer, who encouraged him to portray his own emotional and psychological state ("soul painting"). This resulted in his individual style.
In Paris, he studied extensively with Paul Gauguin, Vincent van Gogh, and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, mainly on color.
In Berlin he met the Swedish playwright August Strindberg, whom he painted at the beginning of an important series of works, later dubbed The Frieze of Life, depicting a series of deeply felt themes such as love, fear, jealousy and betrayal. in the environment.
Kristiania was the inspiration for O Grito. Munch was walking at dusk when he heard "the great boundless howl of nature."
The pained face in the photo is often associated with contemporary anxiety. Between 1893 and 1910 he made two painted versions, two pastels and a series of engravings. One of the pastels was later auctioned off for the fourth highest selling price of any painting.
His mental state remained uncertain as his fame and money skyrocketed. She briefly considered marriage, but was unable to commit. After a mental breakdown in 1908 caused him to stop drinking, he was encouraged by the growing acceptance of it among the people of Kristiania and by its exposure in the city's museums.
In his later years he worked in peace and seclusion. Although his writings were banned in Nazi-occupied Europe, most of them survived World War II, safeguarding his legacy.
2.Wassily Kandinsky

Kandinsky, Wassily Wassilyevich (December 16, 1866 - December 13, 1944) was a Russian painter and art theorist. Kandinsky is widely considered to be one of the forefathers of abstract painting in Western art, perhaps second only to Hilma af Klint.
He was born in Moscow and grew up in Odessa, where he graduated from the Grekov Odessa Art School. He enrolled at Moscow University to study law and economics.
Kandinsky began studying painting (living drawing, sketching, and anatomy) at the age of 30, after obtaining a professorship (Chair of Roman Law) at the University of Dorpat (now Tartu, Estonia).
Kandinsky moved to Munich in 1896, where he studied first at Anton Abe's private school and then at the Academy of Fine Arts. After the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, he returned to Moscow. After the Russian Revolution, Kandinsky became "a member of Anatoly Lunacharsky's cultural administration" and helped establish the Museum of Painting Culture.
But "his mental outlook...was alien to the argumentative materialism of Soviet society of the time", and opportunities awaited him in Germany, where he went in 1920.
He taught there from 1922 until the National Socialists dissolved the Bauhaus School of Art and Architecture in 1933.
He then moved to France, where he lived for the rest of his life, becoming a French citizen in 1939 and creating some of his most notable works. He died in Neuilly-sur-Seine in 1944, three days before his 78th birthday.
3.Ernst Ludwig Kirchner

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner (May 6, 1880 - June 15, 1938) was a German expressionist painter and printmaker, a founding member of the group of artists Die Brücke or 'The Bridge', a fundamental group for the development of 20th-century expressionist art. . .
He enlisted for military service during World War I, but was discharged shortly thereafter due to a nervous breakdown. In 1933, the Nazis labeled his art "degenerate" and, by 1937, more than 600 of his works were sold or burned.
4.franz marc

Franz Moritz Wilhelm Marc (February 8, 1880 – March 4, 1916) was a German painter and printmaker who played a leading role in German Expressionism.
He was a founding member of Der Blaue Reiter, a magazine whose name has become associated with the group of artists who contributed to it.
His mature paintings primarily depict animals and are noted for their vivid colors. At the outbreak of World War I, he was conscripted into the German army and killed two years later at the Battle of Verdun.
As part of the suppression of contemporary art in the 1930s, the Nazis branded him a degenerate artist.
However, most of his work survived World War II, securing his legacy. Currently, his art can be seen in several renowned galleries and institutions.
When his magnificent paintings go on sale, they fetch impressive prices, including a record £12,340,500 ($24,376,190) for Grazing Horses III.
5.Egon Schiele

Egon Leo Adolf Ludwig Schiele whatAustrian expressionist painterwho lived from June 12, 1890 to October 31, 1918.
A protégé of Gustav Klimt, Schiele was a famous figurative painter of the early 20th century. His work stands out for its intensity and raw sensuality, as do the artist's many self-portraits, including nude self-portraits.
Schiele's paintings and sketches are characterized by twisted body shapes and expressive lines, making the artist one of the earliest representatives of Expressionism.
6.Pablo Klee

Paul Klee (December 18, 1879 - June 29, 1940) was a Swiss-born German artist. His distinctive style was inspired by art movements such as expressionism, cubism, and surrealism.
Klee was a born draftsman who experimented with color theory and eventually researched it thoroughly and wrote about it extensively; His lectures on form and design, published in English as Paul Klee Notebooks, are considered as important to modern art as Leonardo da Vinci's Treatise on Painting for the Renaissance.
He and his colleague, the Russian painter Wassily Kandinsky, taught at the German Bauhaus school of art, design and architecture.
His paintings showcase his sarcastic wit and often childish perspective, as well as his unique moods, viewpoints, and musicality.
7.Emilio nolde

Emil Nolde (born Hans Emil Hansen; August 7, 1867 – April 13, 1956) was a Danish-German painter and printmaker.
He was a founding member of the bridge and one of the first tankers andwatercolor artistearly 20th century to experiment with color.
He is known for his expressive color palette and brushwork. Golden yellows and deep reds are often used in his work, giving dark tones a radiant look. His paintings depict vibrant flowers and amazing stormy landscapes.
Nolde's great fascination with the subject of flowers reflected his admiration for the paintings of Vincent van Gogh.
Despite the fact that his work was featured in the 1937 Degenerate Art exhibit, Nolde was a racist, anti-Semite, and ardent admirer of Nazi Germany.
8.Anita Malfatti

Anita Catarina Malfatti (December 2, 1889 - November 6, 1964) is considered the first Brazilian artist to bring European and American modernism to Brazil.
His solo exhibition in São Paulo from 1917 to 1918 was controversial at the time, and its expressionist style and subject matter were revolutionary for the smug and old-fashioned artistic expectations of Brazilians, who were searching for a national identity in art but not ready for it. the influences that Malfatti would bring to the country.
Malfatti's presence was also strongly felt during the Semana de Arte Moderna (Modern Art Week) in 1922, when she and the Grupo dos Cinco made significant revolutionary changes in the organization of and attitude toward modern art in Brazil.
9.otto dix

Wilhelm Heinrich Otto Dix (December 2, 1891 – July 25, 1969)[1] was a German painter and printmaker best known for his relentless and ruthlessly realistic depictions of German society in the Weimar Republic and the cruelty of war .
Along with George Grosz and Max Beckmann, he is considered one of the most important painters of the New Objectivity.
When World War I broke out, Dix enlisted in the German army. In Dresden he was assigned to a field artillery unit.
In the autumn of 1915 he was posted to a machine-gun regiment on the Western Front as a non-commissioned officer and took part in the Battle of the Somme.
His regiment was deployed to the Eastern Front in November 1917 until hostilities with Russia ended, and was stationed in Flanders in February 1918.
He fought in the German Spring Raid when it returned to the Western Front. He was awarded the Iron Cross (2nd Class) and promoted to the rank of Deputy Sergeant.
The images of the battle had a great impact on Dix, who later recalled a recurring nightmare in which he crawled through ruined buildings.
Many of his later works reflected his ordeals, most notably The War, a portfolio of fifty prints published in 1924. He then returned to the battlefield with The War Triptych, which he painted between 1929 and 1932.
10Piet Mondrian

Pieter Cornelis Mondriaan (March 7, 1872 - February 1, 1944) was a Dutch painter and art theorist considered one of the most respectedThe best painters of the 20th century.
He is considered one of the forerunners of 20th-century abstract art, having moved from figurative painting to an increasingly abstract style of painting until his creative language was reduced to mere geometric components.
Mondrian's work had a tremendous impact on 20th-century art, influencing not only the course of abstract painting and numerous important styles and movements in art (for example, color field painting, abstract expressionism, and minimalism), but also in other areas beyond painting, such as design, architecture and fashion.
11august mack

August Robert Ludwig Macke was a German Expressionist painter who lived from January 3, 1887 to September 26, 1914. He was a key member of the German Expressionist ensemble Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider).
Living in an extremely dynamic period of German art, he witnessed the birth of the major German Expressionist groups, as well as the rise of subsequent avant-garde movements that sprang up across Europe.
As a contemporary artist, Macke knew how to incorporate avant-garde aspects into his work that caught his attention. he was one of the boysgerman painterwho died in World War I along with his friends Franz Marc and Otto Soltau.
12marc chagall

Marc Chagall was a French artist who lived from July 6, 1887 to March 28, 1985. He was an early modernist who worked in a variety of creative media including painting, drawing, book illustrations, stained glass, stage design, ceramics , tapestry and fine art prints
He was of Belarusian Jewish descent and was born in present-day Belarus, then part of the Russian Empire. Before World War I, he traveled between St. Petersburg, Paris, and Berlin.
Also read: famous jewish artists
During this time, he developed his own mix and style of contemporary art based on his perception of Eastern European and Jewish popular culture.
He spent the war years in Soviet Belarus, where he founded the Vitebsk School of Arts and became one of the country's leading painters and a member of the modernist avant-garde, before returning to Paris in 1923.
13franz mota

Francis Bacon (October 28, 1909 – April 28, 1992) was an Irish-born British figurative painter known for his stark and chilling imagery.
His subjects, centered on the human form, included crucifixions, portraits of popes, self-images, and portraits of close friends, with abstract people often standing alone in geometric constructions.
Although Bacon rejects various categorizations of his work, he has said that it was intended to portray "the savagery of reality". With his own style, he established himself as one of the heavyweights of modern art.
Bacon said that he viewed paintings "in series" and his work, which included more than 590 surviving works as well as many he destroyed, often focused on a single subject for long periods of time, often in triptychs or diptychs.
14Amadeo Modigliani

Amedeo Clemente Modigliani (July 12, 1884 - January 24, 1920) was an Italian painter and sculptor who worked primarily in France.
He is best known for portraits and nudes in a contemporary style characterized by a surreal elongation of facial features, necks, and bodies, which were not highly regarded in his lifetime but have been in high demand ever since.
Modigliani spent his childhood in Italy studying ancient and Renaissance art. In 1906 he moved to Paris, where he met artists such as Pablo Picasso and Constantin Brâncuși.
In 1912, Modigliani exhibited highly stylized sculptures at the Salon d'Automne alongside cubists from the Section d'Or group.
Modigliani's work consists of paintings and sketches. From 1909 to 1914 he concentrated mainly on sculpture. Portraits and full-length figures were his main subjects, both in painting and sculpture.
Modigliani had limited success during his lifetime, but became very famous after his death. He died in Paris at the age of 35 of tubercular meningitis.
15.Gabrielle cheerful

Gabriele Münter (February 19, 1877 – May 19, 1962) was a German Expressionist painter who was at the forefront of the Munich avant-garde at the turn of the 20th century.
He was a founding member of the expressionist group Der Blaue Reiter and studied and lived with the painter Wassily Kandinsky.
Münter was significantly influenced by German Expressionism and worked with a variety of materials, including woodcuts and linoleums.
He kept a notebook and used a high-tech camera to record his travels. He met some of the mostknown paintersof the day, and mentioned in one of his notebooks that he wanted to learn from the avant-gardeartists from france.
Münter was a member of a small group of painters who were instrumental in transforming Late Impressionism, Neo-Impressionism, and Art Nouveau (or Art Nouveau) painting into the more radical, non-naturalistic art now known as Expressionism.
Münter grew up with a great interest in landscapes. With softly muted tones, compressed pictorial space, and flat forms, Münter's landscape paintings use Art Nouveau's radical simplicity and provocative symbolism.
He was fascinated by the world of children; Using vivid impressions of children and toys, Münter demonstrates precision and simplicity of form in his denial of symbolic meaning.