Post-Impressionism Movement

Post-Impressionism Movement

Introduction

In terms of aesthetics and concepts, I am impressed by the Post-Impressionism art movement. The movement appeals to me because it uses vivid colors. It often applies a thick veil of paint and relies on real-life matters. The movement’s inclination towards the emphasis of geometric forms, the use of unnatural, arbitrary colors, and an application of expressive effect make it exceedingly appealing. It breaks away from the triviality of the subject matter and the evident loss in the structural composition of the Impressionist paintings (Brogden, 2017). Just like the arts in the museum, the post-impressionist objective is to make an impression of something durable and solid. The fact that the movement reduced objects to their fundamental, basic shapes while simultaneously maintaining the saturated Impressionists colors makes it outstanding and exciting. The use of art and vibrant color by renowned painters such as Vincent van Gogh to convey their deep state of mind and feelings that make the Post-Impressionist movement unique. I am drawn towards the mentioned movement, Post-Impressionism, because of its inclusion of details and attention to aesthetics.

The Post-Impressionism movement began in the 1880s when a group of young painters sought to have a unique, independent artistic expression of the state of mind and emotions (Brogden, 2017). For this reason, they broke away from the conventional optical impressions. The focus of the group concentrated on symbols that conveyed profound symbolism. The application of definitive forms and simplified colors characterized the movement, which was majorly driven by abstract tendencies and a revitalized sense of aesthetics. The most notable artists that led the Post-Impressionist movement were Vincent van Gogh, Paul Cezanne, Georges Seurat, and Paul Gauguin, among others. The movement took place in various places, namely Panama, Martinique, Provence, and Brittany. The mentioned figures drew diverse, albeit unconventional at the time, paths that led to the discovery of authentic intellectual and artistic achievements. It is worth noting that the artists worked independently and did not consider themselves as part of a collective movement. The impressionism movement directly influenced Post-Impressionism.

Historical Response

Post-Impressionism entails an extensive range of distinct, unique artistic styles that shared the common motivation of challenging the visual aspect of the Impressionists movement. The overall banner of the movement encompassed various stylistic variations that range from lush symbolism initiated by Paul Gauging and the scientific orientation of Neo-Impressionism championed by Georges Seurat. The common factor is that the works by the diverse artists majorly focused on the artist’s subjective vision. The movement was responsible for an era in which the works of art went beyond its traditional function of reflecting the world and instead opened up a vision into the artist’s soul and mind. During the turn of the 20th century, the change in the aesthetics value of painting influenced various artists that sought to apply visual aspects to bring forth a new crop of painting that expressed their state of mind and emotions rather than the world.

The Post-Impressionist paintings focused on the symbolic and extremely personal meanings, which were especially relevant to the movement’s leading figures, such as Vincent van Gogh and Paul Gauging. The mentioned artists evidently rejected the domineering interests in depicting the observable world, and instead ventured into their emotions and memories to find inspiration and to connect with the audience in a degree that was comparatively deeper. The order, the structure, and the optical effects were dominant in the movement to bring out an aesthetic vision. Pioneer artists such as Paul Signac, Paul Cezanne, and George Seurat ensured that the movement remained organized. They broke from the traditional presentation of ideas and ventured into the interrelations of shape and color to provide a vivid description of the world. Noteworthy is the fact that most Post-Impressionist artists concentrated on pattern and abstract while applying paint on the canvass regardless of their personalized styles. Their early inclination towards abstraction was the forerunner of the radical modernists’ concepts that led to the exploration of abreaction.

The primary mission of Post-Impressionism was to investigate techniques that would permit them to depict a purer form of expression while at the same time retaining the use of fantastic and bright colors that were mainly possible to display through the use of short brushstrokes (Zhang, Wang, & Liu, 2018). The mentioned independence among the artists permitted them to have the freedom to experiment in different directions that included pointillism by Seurat and intensified impressionism by van Gogh. The motivation behind the Post-Impressionism artists was majorly philosophical as they searched for various ways to express their state of mind and emotions without necessarily having to adhere to the painting practices that existed at the time. It is difficult to determine precisely when the movement ended because it served as an inspiration to various modern artists that still ply their craft even to date. The basic independent styles pursued by the Post-Impressionist artists influenced generations of artists that include but are not limited to Pierre Bonnard, Pablo Picasso, Edward Vuillard, John Marin, and Marsden Hartley (Lewittes, 2018). In essence, the pioneer artists passed on their idea and philosophy to the next generation of painters that continue to rely on a similar ideology.

Critical Analysis

The most important pieces of painting that represents the Post-Impressionism movement include Sunday afternoon on the Island of Grand Jatte (1884-86) by Georges Seurat, Vision after the Sermon (1888) by Paul Gauguin, and Octagonal Self-Portrait (1890) by Edouard Vuillard.

The image below represents Sunday afternoon on the Island of Grand Jatte (1884-86) by Georges Seurat

The image below shows Vision after the Sermon (1888) by Paul Gauguin

The image below shows Octagonal Self-Portrait (1890) by Edouard Vuillard (French Painter)

Selected Painting: Vision after the Sermon (1888) by Paul Gauguin

The selected painting was done in the year 1888 in what is famously know as Gauguin’s’ Brittany Phase, in which he kept switching places of dwelling. Its dimensions are 73 cm by 92 cm. It is an oil painting that depicts a Christian art genre. It was painted in the town of Brittany, where the artists drew inspiration from Breton women that drew him towards religious paintings (Fowle, 2017). He painted various studies of the ceremonial headdresses of the mentioned dedicated nuns to signify different marital statuses, social classes, and occupations. The painting is religious since it depicts Jacob wrestling with an Angel as talked about in the Book of Genesis in the Bible. Interpretation of modern theology stipulates that the struggle between Jacob and the angel represents the everyday struggle that an individual undergoes. The shape, line, and color in the selected painting was unique at the time and represented Post-Impressionism. The landscape used in the painting is non-naturalistic. Gauguin introduced blacks, reds, whites into the painting that was a complete contrast from the natural color of the image. Seemingly, the artists experimented with exaggeration of features, application of strong contour lines, and the apparent shape distortion, which is different from the conventional gradual shifts that most painters relied on at the time. A closer look reveals that the colors are solid and flat, which means that they do not show much depth.

Gauguin’s inclusion of the tree was a deliberate compositional style. The tree appears random in the middle of the image and has no beginning on end. It seems to divide the painting into equal halves, forming two frames. The tree curve follows through one of the nuns shifting attention towards her before the rest. Furthermore, a closer look at where the leaves begin show that they shoot directly to end up in the upper right corner that seems to create a second frame around the struggle that Jacob has with the angels (Mathews, 2017). Gauguin also deliberately skewed the perspective of the painting. The Breton nuns are comparatively larger than the cow placed strategically next to them. Besides, the painting is not an actual representation of reality. The painting’s perspective is quite off to the point of tempting the audience to think that it is composed of two separate pictures. The objective was to have a disproportionate and non-natural landscape that appeals to the imagination, not merely to the eyes. The unnatural nature of the painting attracted the audience, meaning that it had a positive reception that attracted curious people.

Conclusion

The Post-Impressionism movement accorded the artists the necessary independence to pursue unique painting styles and dedication for magnificent artistic expression. Apart from providing the audience with great works of art, it mentored other artists who took after the ideological and the philosophical drive of renowned artists such as van Gogh, to bring forth more creative and expressive pieces of art. The movement permitted the artists to not only paint the outside world but also to expresses their deeper feelings, emotions, and state of mind. Its endearment towards the emphasis of geometric forms, the use of unnatural, arbitrary colors, and the application of expressive features made it interesting and appealing to artists and the audience since it spoke to the mind and soul in varying measures. It breaks away from the triviality of the subject matter and the evident loss in the structural composition of the Impressionist paintings. The movement’s rejection of the limitations traditionally imposed by the Impressionist movement allowed the artists to unlock their potentials and to express what was possible only through imagination. The fact that artists were able to break the triviality of the subject matter and impose a structure that suited their works means that the movement ushered in an era of freedom in painting.

References

Brogden, E. (2017). Color and Line: Scandinavian Post-Impressionism and the Figure of Passing in Nella Larsen. Studies in American Fiction, 44(2), 211-234. Retrieved from https://muse.jhu.edu/article/679888/summary

Fowle, F. (2017). Introduction: Nordic Artists’ Colonies 1870–1914 (Part 2). Retrieved from https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17561310.2017.1405646

Lewittes, D. (2018). Art 55 History of Modern Art. City University of New York. Retrieved from https://academicworks.cuny.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1022&context=bx_oers

Mathews, N. M. (2017). Gauguin, Buffalo Bill, and the Cowboy Hat. American Studies Journal, (2). Retrieved from https://journals.openedition.org/transatlantica/10968

Zhang, J., Wang, G. L., & Liu, S. (2018). Post-Impressionism in Virginia Woolf’s The Waves. US-China Foreign Language, 62.