At high school, Rainer was influenced by Professor Trötscher, who taught his “hobbyhorses” of Impressionism and Expressionism in the art classroom.
Later, the “art virus” also spread to Sonja, who is now enthusiastically involved with both art styles.
After 1900, Expressionism is a painting style in the German-speaking world. After the transitional phase of Fauvism, the expressionist painting is contrary to Impressionism. In their paintings, the expressionists emphasize striking pictorial subjects by changing their form, using colors freely and by eliminating perspective. While the Impressionists tried to objectively depict the presence, it is important for the expressionists to subjectively and freely express the current life situation in their paintings.
The most well-known expressionist artist groups are “Die Brücke” (The Bridge) in Dresden (Heckel, Kirchner, Müller, Pechstein, Schmidt-Rottluff) and “Der Blaue Reiter” (The Blue Rider) in Munich (Jawlensky, Kandinsky, Marc, Münter, von Werefkin). In addition, there was the Rhenish expressionist direction.
Below, we have put together a few expressionists with selected works.
{slide=Wassily Kandinsky}
Born 1866 in Moscow, died 1944 in Neuilly-sur-Seine (France). He is the most important artist of expressionism and abstract art. He lived at Staffelsee, in Dessau, Berlin, Moscow and Neuilly-sur-Seine near Paris. He was the chairman of the New Artists' Association of Munich, the Blue Rider and the Russian Academy of Art. He had an extraordinary sense of color and form.
{slide=Marc Chagall}
Born in 1887 near Vitebsk (Belarus), died in Saint-Paul-de-Vence (France). Considered a poet-painter of expressionism. His life was characterized by religiosity and a close connection to his homeland. Symbols with these contents can be in his paintings, mosaics in church windows and theater backdrops over and over again. Worked in St. Petersburg, Paris, Moscow, New York and briefly in many European cities.
{slide=Paul Klee}
Born 1879 in Münchenbuchsee (Switzerland), died 1940 in Muralto (Switzerland). One of the “classical modern” artists with roots in expressionism, cubism, surrealism and other styles. Friends with August Macke and Wassily Kandinsky. Was deeply influenced by a trip to Tunisia in 1914. Created a diverse artistic work in Dessau, Düsseldorf, Munich and Bern.
{slide=Max Beckmann}
Born in Leipzig in 1884, died in New York in 1950. German expressionist and modern artist who expressed worlds of form. Lived in Weimar, Paris, Florence, Berlin, Amsterdam and New York. Was a member of the Secession. Diverse in his work, ranging from pictures with a strong figurative element to those with no objects at all, later leaning towards mythical painting.
{slide=August Macke}
Born in Meschede (Sauerland) in 1887, he was fatally wounded near Perthes-lès-Hurlus (France) in 1914. He was one of the most well-known German expressionists. His painting style is characterized by pure, harmonious colors, and his subjects by positive cheerfulness. Macke spent his short life as an artist in Düsseldorf, Berlin, Bonn, and at the Tegernsee and Lake Thun (Switzerland). He participated in the exhibitions of the “Blauer Reiter”.
{slide=Franz Marc}
Born in Munich in 1880, he died in the war near Verdun (France) in 1916. A very important German expressionist. Together with Kandinsky, he founded the “Blauer Reiter” (Blue Rider) group in 1911. He worked mainly in Munich and Kochel am See. With his animal pictures, Marc spiritualized the “animalization of art” as the purity of organic life. His painting style was based on expressionist abstraction of objects and on his own color theory.
{/slides}
