Expressionism

byDipika Gurnaney

Expressionism emerged at the beginning of the 20th century in Germany, Europe. It was one of the most emotionally intense movements of the modernist period. While Impressionism aimed to portray the world outside through fleeting light and colour, Expressionism turned inwards, focussing instead on portraying inner turmoil and emotion.

The Red Horses | Image Source: franzmarc.org

Origin of Expressionism

The term ‘Expressionism’ was coined in 1910 by Czech art historian Antonin Matějček to describe works that did not reflect the outer world like Impressionism but instead expressed internal states. As World War I shook Europe, artists responded to its instability and destruction with raw, emotional depictions of fear, anger and disillusionment.

This was also a time of rapid scientific progress, which brought both a sense of advancement and widespread devastation. Expressionist artists reacted against the coldness of industrialisation and modern science, channelling their discomfort into intense, distorted images.

Expressionists used powerful lines, shocking colours and exaggerated forms to convey their emotional experiences. They rejected realism and instead used swirling and distorted brushstrokes to reflect the chaos they felt inside.

Essence of Expressionism

Expressionism wasn’t a unified style but a shared approach to showing inner emotion. Two key groups emerged:

The Bridge (Die Brücke): known for bold colours and raw, energetic portraits and landscapes. Ernst Ludwig Kirchner was the most prominent and influential member of this group.
The Blue Rider (Der Blaue Reiter): leaned towards abstraction, using symbolic colour and form. Wassily Kandinsky was a founding member of this group.

Identifying Expressionism

Expressionist artwork can be recognised by:

Distorted figures that reflect emotional extremes.
Bold, unrealistic use of colour and thick impasto paint.
Freely applied brushstrokes—often wild, swirling or exaggerated.
Subjects that convey fear, isolation, protest or raw human emotion.

FAMOUS CUBIST ARTISTS AND THEIR WORKS

Edvard Munch (1863-1944)

Munch, who was from Norway, heavily influenced Expressionism.
‘The Scream’ (1893) depicts a man standing on a bridge, screaming with his hands on his face. The sky behind him is red and swirling. The picture expresses the emotion of a person alone in his anguish and anxiety. It depicts the battle between the individual and society. The painting is based on Munch’s actual experience of a scream piercing through nature while on a walk. ‘The Scream’ is considered to be Munch’s most famous painting.

Franz Marc (1880-1916)

Focussed on animals as symbols of purity.
In ‘The Red Horses’, Marc used a variety of colours and movement to express the energy and power of nature.
He often used colours to represent certain emotions—blue meant spirituality and masculinity, yellow meant femininity and red meant power and violence.

Emil Nolde (1867-1956)

Known for religious and mystical subjects.
His painting ‘Crucifixion’ (1912) uses shocking colours and distorted faces to express deep anguish.

Characteristics of Expressionism

Emotion is at the heart of Expressionism—artists expressed what they felt, not what they saw.
Shapes and colours are exaggerated to communicate mood.
There are no fixed rules; tools like knives, sticks and spoons were often used instead of brushes.
The experience of viewing the artwork is meant to be personal and subjective.
Expressionism extended beyond painting into sculpture, writing, architecture, theatre, film, dance and music.
Writers and poets used this style to criticise industrial society and expose emotional truths. Eventually, when the Nazis rose to power in Germany, they labelled Expressionist work as “degenerate art”, banning it and exiling many artists and writers.

Artists like Vincent van Gogh, Paul Gauguin and Edvard Munch laid the groundwork for Expressionism with their emotionally charged works. The movement spread across Europe, with major contributors including James Ensor (Belgium), Oskar Kokoschka (Austria) and German artists such as Max Beckmann, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, August Macke and Franz Marc.

Dipika Gurnaney studied at the Sir JJ School of Fine Arts and is a recipient of a scholarship from the Pont Aven School of Contemporary Art in France. Dipika has been teaching children art since 2002.