Whenever we talk about some of my favorite pieces of art, I have to stomp on my urge to just drag people straight to this painting and go, “THIS IS EVERYTHING I LOVE ABOUT ART AFTER IMPRESSIONISM ENDS.” It is slashes of color; it is expressionism and indistinct, yet it is coherent. It is bold and succinct. It is poignant and direct and to the point. It has no problem telling you exactly what it is and why it’s here and that you are just a fly on the wall. This is a particular kind of unapologetic art for art’s sake, and I love it so much it makes my little heart burst.
Tag: expressionism
Wednesday
This is simple, beautiful, and pure. There is no ulterior motive or sentiment: it just is.
Sunday
Beckmann uses a very distinct style of intense dark-lining and heavy shadowing that gives many of his works a foreboding feel to them, despite their kaledescopic color qualities. This is one such work; the shadows feel out of place, the lighting not quite right, everything is just slightly surrealistically off-putting, yet, there isn’t anything quite wrong about it.
Saturday
In a lot of ways, this is similar to elements of broader reaches of “African” art, but when you begin comparing it more closely, the comparisons become more caricatures than anything else. This is more expressionism than imitation; allowing for the expression of the artist’s worldview rather than imitating the viewpoints around him. It’s also bordering on cubism, but we’ll digress on the allusions to Picasso.
Friday
What I enjoy the most about this sculpture is the unstudied, unaffected aspects of it. The nudity is very natural, the curves very real. It’s only when you reach the facial features that you suddenly realize that the sculptor has gotten a little careless and his model’s face has become something more simplistic and expressionist than realistic.
Thursday
This painting is a bit like ‘choose your own adventure’ but with colors and shapes. You know it’s meant to be goats and you know it’s meant to be mountains, but everything else is subjective.