By Kenzi Crescenzo
Staff Writer

Expressionism is defined as an art movement that touches upon forms of modern art that distort reality to evoke emotion from its viewer or audience. By distorting reality, the artist can force the audience to disregard physical tangibility, therefore leading the viewer to focus primarily on feeling.

Expressionism originates from Germany, and was a response to the French Impressionism (“a style of painting that…attempts to capture the feeling of a scene rather than specific details”), and academic art. German artists felt as though humanity had lost a connection with emotion and spirituality when it came to artwork, so in response, they began to depict intense emotion within their artwork and writing. Most expressionist art was found within the 20th century, until expressionism was revived in the 1970s and 80s through Neo-Expressionism.

As expected, due to their close origins, expressionism has been greatly influenced by Post-Impressionism, as well as Symbolist art. Symbolist artist Gustav Klimt (whose most famous painting is “The Kiss”) directly influenced expressionist artist Egon Schiele. However, unlike post-impressionist artwork that focuses almost solely on manipulating visual reality, expressionism seamlessly involves psychology in the way no other art movement does.

Expressionism and Abstract expressionism has not only attracted fans, but critics as well. Some may find the nonrepresentational nature of expressionism to be frustrating due to the lack of coherency. Abstract expressionists such as Mark Rothko or Hans Hofmann may receive criticism based upon the physical appearance of the painting rather than the emotion and thought the artwork evokes.

Some of the most well known expressionist artists include Wassily Kandinsky, Ernest Ludwig Kirchner, Franz Marc, and Emil Nolde.