Expressionism


Expressionism is, generally speaking, a tendency in any art form (painting,
literature, film,architecture and so on) to distort reality for emotional
effect. Additionally, the term often implies emotional angst - the number of
cheerful expressionist works is relatively small.

In this general sense, painters such as Mathias GrŸnewald and El Greco can
be called expressionist, though in practice, the term is applied mainly to
20th century works.

Some of the movement's leading painters in the early 20th century were:

   * Wassily Kandinsky
   * Oskar Kokoschka
   * Franz Marc
   * Edvard Munch
   * Emil Nolde
   * Egon Schiele
   * Chaim Soutine

There were a number of Expressionist groups in painting, including the Blaue
Reiter and Die BrŸcke. Later in the 20th century, the movement influenced a
large number of other artists, including the so-called abstract
expressionists.

Expressionism is also found in other art forms - the novels of Franz Kafka
are often described as expressionist, for example, and there was a
concentrated Expressionist movement in early 20th century German theatre
centred around Georg Kaiser and Ernst Toller. In music, Arnold Schoenberg
and Alban Berg both wrote pieces described as expressionist (Schoenberg also
made expressionist paintings).

In architecture, the work of Eric Mendelsohn comes under this category. An
important building by him under this style is the Einstein Tower in Potsdam,
Germany. There is an organic quality to buildings using this approach.