SO MUCH ENERGY - SUCH STRONG COLOURS

Well, after « The Orient Express » - see previous chapter - the TGV to Zurich was a little tame. Still it’s fast - most of the time and comfortable. I was off to see this……. « From Matisse to the Blue Rider - Expressionism in Germany and France ». Sure I had booked months ago and was impatient to get back to something I really enjoy.

Today, ’Expressionism’ is generally viewed as a German movement – yet in fact it emerged at the start of the 20th century from the enthusiastic groups of German artists with Classical Modernism in France.

"Van Gogh struck modern art like a bolt of lightning,"

was how one German observer described the painter’s impact on German artists – at a time when they were already coming to terms with Seurat, Signac and the Neo-Impressionists. Then followed Gauguin, Cézanne and Matisse. The response by the artists of ’Die Brücke’ ( 1905-1913) and ’Der Blaue Reiter’ (1911-1913) to French Neo-Impressionism and the ’Fauves’ (1904-1908) was a veritable riot of colour. That is course why I like these periods so much. The color and the extraordinary energy in the painting. It' worthwhile noting perhaps......

 Post Impressionism was not a particular style of painting. It was the collective title given to the works of a few independent artists at the end of the 19th century. The Post Impressionists rebelled against the limitations of Impressionism to develop a range of personal styles that influenced the development of art in the 20th century. The major artists associated with Post Impressionism were Paul Cézanne, Paul Gauguin, Vincent Van Gogh and Georges Seurat.

 Henri Matisse  and André Derain  introduced strong color and vivid brushstrokes into their paintings in the summer of 1905, working together in the small fishing port of Collioure on the Mediterranean coast When their pictures were exhibited later that year at the Salon d'Automne in Paris (Matisse, The Woman with a Hat), they inspired the witty critic Louis Vauxcelles to call them fauves ("wild beasts") in his review for the magazine Gil Blas. This term was later applied to the artists themselves.

The Fauvist movement was compared to German Expressionism, both projecting brilliant colors and spontaneous brushwork, and indebted to the same late nineteenth-century sources, especially Van Gogh. The French were more concerned with the formal aspects of pictorial organization, while the German Expressionists were more emotionally involved in their subjects.
Their spontaneous, often subjective response to nature was expressed in bold, undisguised brushstrokes and high-keyed, vibrant colors directly from the tube.

Matisse - before the Fauves

The beginning of the Fauves - Matisse 1905

Paul Cezanne 1839-1906 Bathers if front of a tent

Vincent Van Gogh (1853-1890) Chaumières in Chapoval 1890

Henri Matisse 1869-1954 Nude study in Blue 1899/1900

Van Gogh 1857Restaurant-de-la-Sirène-at-Asnières

Van Gogh Two-Peasant-Women-Digging-in-Field-with-Snow

Gauguin, 1848-1903 -Portrait-Of-Mother 1893 - she looks so young!

There were over 100 paintings in the exhibition. My first visit was for two hours and then I returned the following morning for another two. 

 
The artists’ group Brücke was established in Dresden on June 7, 1905, a moment that is recognized as the birth of Expressionism. Its leading members were Erich Heckel, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Max Pechstein, and Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, and the name Brücke (“bridge”) reflects these artists’ youthful eagerness to cross into a new future. The Brücke artists worked together communally until 1913, when the members struck out on their own separate paths. 

 I have always appreciated Max Pechstein’s (1881-1955) definition of art.

Work! Ecstasy! Smash your brains! Chew, stuff yourself, gulp it down, mix it around! The bliss of giving birth! The crack of the brush, best of all as it stabs the canvas. - This really sums up the energy of all three groups and their experimentation in vivid colors and brush strokes. 

Henri Matise - Seated nude 1906

Kees Van Dongen , 1877-1968 : Nude girl 1907

Kirchner - Two  nudes 1909

Ernst-Kirchner-Nude-Combing-her-Hair_-1913-

Modjesko, Soprano Singer
Kees van Dongen (French, 1877–1968)

Max Pechstein (1881-1955) Young Woman 1908

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner (1880-1938) Dodo with Japanese Fan 1909

Ersnt ludwig Kirchner (1880-1938) Dance hall 1909/10

 

 

Christian Rohlfs (1849-1938) birch forest 190

Der Blaue Reiter was formed in 1911 in Munich as a loose association of painters led by Vasily Kandinsky and Franz Marc. They shared an interest in abstracted forms and prismatic colors, which, they felt, had spiritual values that could counteract the corruption and materialism of their age. The flattened perspective and reductive forms of woodcut helped put the artists, especially Kandinsky, on the path toward abstraction in their painting.

The name Blaue Reiter (“blue rider”) refers to a key motif in Kandinsky’s work: the horse and rider, which was for him a symbol for moving beyond realistic representation. The horse was also a prominent subject in Marc’s work, which centered on animals as symbols of rebirth. I might add, that these well known paintings were not featured in the exhibition. Some of the artists were :
Heinrich Campendonk,Vasily Kandinsky, Paul Klee,  August Macke
Franz Marc, Alexei Jawlensky, Gabriele Münter      


 

Alexei Jawlensky 1886-1941 landscape 1911

Kandisky

Erich Heckel  1883-1970 girl with doll 1910

Heinrich Campendonk 1889-1957 The Balcony 1913

AUGUSTE mACKE 1887-1914 LANDSCAPE ITH COWS AND CAMELS 1914 - I love it!

Ajouter une légende

Gabriele Munter (1877-1962) Autumn Landscape 1910

Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1944) Fragments of Composition ll - 1910

Franz Marc (1880-1916) Goats 1913

Franz Marc (1880-1913) Laziness 1913

August Macke (1887-1914)  Haystack field 1911

Lyonnel Feininger (1871-1956)- The Bridge 1912

Othon-friesz-Eagles Beak at citotat-1907

Karl Schmidt-Rottluff 1884-1976: garden street 1906

       

Marianne-von-werefkin 1(860-1938)-The red Tree1910

  
Der Blaue Reiter dissolved with the outbreak of World War I in August 1914. Kandinsky, a Russian citizen, was forced to return to his homeland, and Marc and another Blaue Reiter artist, August Macke, were killed in action.

Of course we all know that they were described as the « degenerates » by Hitler close to the outbreak of the second world war.

The two groups look remarkably alike as you can see when looking at their work. I have tried to place the pictures in groups but I think they are better when mixed.   Der Blaue Reiter was much more musical because of Shoenberg’s and Werbern’s influence. There is a different lilt in the paintings and a different movement however abstract both schools are. There is something as well. I want to show pictures which have not been included in previous chapters - there have been quite a few on this subect.......

 This time around I did not buy the catalogue. I have more than enough relating to these periods here in Paris. However, I'm glad I bought I number of postcards as many of the paintings could not be found on Internet - and yes, you have guessed - no photographs allowed.