.
Expressionist artists also often employed swirling, swaying and exaggeratedly executed brush strokes in the depiction of their subjects. In part these techniques conveyed the emotional state of the artist, though they might also offer comment on modern the world.
These are some Expressionists of their time:
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| Sir Sidney Robert Nolan |
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| Ernst Ludwig Kirchner |
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| Vincent van Gogh |
Wassily Kandinsky was my choice of Expressionist.
Wassily Wassilyevich Kandinsky (16 December 1866 – 13 December 1944).The creator of the first modern abstract paintings, Wassily Kandinsky was an influential Russian painter and art theorist. In his youth, he studied law and economics at the University of Moscow, and was later hired as a professor of Roman law at the University of Dorpat in Estonia. He was 30 years old when he began his studies in painting, focusing on life drawing, sketching, and anatomy, at the University of Munich.
His most notable artwork:
Der Blau Reiter a.k.a The Blue Rider
The Blue
Rider is perhaps Kandinsky’s most important painting from the early
1900’s, before he had fully developed his abstract style of music as
sound. The painting illustrates a rider cloaked in blue, speeding
through a greenish meadow. The painting’s intentional abstractness had
led many art theorists to project their own representations onto the
figure, some seeing a child in the arms of the blue rider. Allowing
viewers to participate in the representations of the art was a technique
that Kandinsky would use to great fruition in his many later works,
which became more and more abstract as his career wore on.Elements of Design
-Lines
The artist uses a heavy line to draw the curved line that separates the meadow from the forest to show two different landscapes existing in one picture,also a heavy blue line is drawn to depict the sky and the mountain in the background. Soft drawn lines are used to draw the objects in between the landscapes.
-Shapes
The shapes in the painting are not drawn perfectly to create a sense of uncertainty among the viewers. In this case, is the rider a male or a female? or what type of tree are present?
-Value
The bright colours used on the meadow is an attempt to attract more attention for the rider as the rider is painted darker and riding on the meadow which provides a tonal contrast.
-Colour
Warm colours of green, blue and yellow are used in colouring the landscape and the objects found. The colour of the rider which is blue, is used to represent the artist's love of the colour blue and as the colour of spirituality. As Wassily believes that the darker the blue, the more it awakens the human desire for the eternal.
-Texture
The texture is of visual texture because the artist used oil painting which does not provide physical texture, therefore providing a smooth and flat texture on the paper
-Alignment
The artist uses a horizontal alignment to depict the rider riding from right to left
-Proportion
The proportion in the painting is good as the artist successfully depicts the rider riding in a wide meadow and having trees with equal proportions in size to men, creating a balance in size of either objects seen in the painting.
-Eye Movement
Eye movement follows the path of the blue rider is riding towards which is from right to left as we can see that the horse is galloping towards the left.
Principles of design
-Hierarchy
Hierarchy is present where the rider is at the top of the hierarchy because it represents the main interest of the painting, while the landscape is the background for the rider causing it to be the secondary interest of viewers.
-Balance
The balance is radial as the rider is the focus point of the painting and the viewers attention will spread throughout the landscape seen in the painting.
-Proximity
Proximity is present in the form that the trees are grouped together to create a forest and the bright green colour of grass creating a meadow. Therefore, creating a landscape where there is a forest next to a meadow.
-Rhythm/Repetition
Rhythm is present in the form of continuous rhythm as we can see that the rider is riding to the left. Repetition is present in the trees, rocks and clouds.
-Scale
The overall size of the painting are of normal of human sizes as the objects seen within the painting are of proportional scale to humans in the real world.
-Unity-Variety
Unity is present among the shape of the trees as the artist repeats the curves done to each tree while the vertical lines of the tree trunks provide a sense of variety as there are two different lines present within a single object drawn. The shape of the horse also provides both unity and variety as the shadow is a sign of repetition to the horse's shape while the lines used to draw the horse does not only consist of curves therefore creating a sense of unity-variety again.
-Harmony
Harmony is present within the painting as the colours used in the environment are used accordingly to the colours of the objects in the real world. This provides an arranged and orderly composition in the painting.
Other notable works of Wassily Kandinsky:
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| Old Town II |
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| Forest Edge |
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Park of St.Cloud with horseman
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wassily_Kandinsky
http://www.theartstory.org/movement-expressionism.htm
http://www.wikipaintings.org/en/wassily-kandinsky/on-white-ii-1923
http://www.wikipaintings.org/en/wassily-kandinsky/old-town-ii-1902
http://www.wikipaintings.org/en/wassily-kandinsky/forest-edge
http://www.wikipaintings.org/en/wassily-kandinsky/park-of-st-cloud-with-horseman-1906
http://www.wikipaintings.org/en/wassily-kandinsky#close
http://www.wikipaintings.org/en/wassily-kandinsky/blue-rider-1903
http://www.bluemoonwebdesign.com/art-lessons-7.asp
http://www.wiu.edu/art/courses/design/elements.htm
http://www.squidoo.com/designelementsandprinciples
http://maddisondesigns.com/2009/03/the-5-basic-principles-of-design/
