FauvismA movement intoxicated with colour

October 2018

Influence on ART 1 # War, Political movements Art Movements of 20th Century # # # # Dadaism 2 #

Fauvism # Art Term # Beginnings # Key Characteristics 3 # Influences and Styles # Famous Artists and artworks Influence of War and Political 1 Movements on ART in 20th Century The twentieth century was one of particular worldwide upheaval, ranging from wars to economic downturns to radical political movements. No one can disagree that the years between 1900 and 2000 were years of extreme change for artists all over the world. The period before World War I was characterized by an art that reflected the optimism and idealism of a new century headed toward a bright future. The innovations of and Cubism brought a new abstract language to art and a rebirth of style and the language of The Gay Liberation painting. Fauvism and Post- infused the art world with the bright colors and gorgeous landscapes.

The civil rights movement was a decades-long movement with the goal of securing legal rights for African Americans that other Americans already held. With roots starting Movement in the Reconstruction era during the late 19th century, the movement resulted in the largest legislative impacts after the direct actions and grassroots protests organized from the mid-1950s until 1968. The movement in painting that led the charge toward well-known 20th-century painting styles, such as Cubism and Expressionism, was Fauvism. From assemblage artists to Minimalist masters turned to art as an act of political defiance. It represents the diversity of gays and lesbians around the world. In the Counterculture began to develop in the United States original eight-color version, pink stood for sexuality, red for life, orange for following the rise of conformity in American culture during the 1950s. The counterculture movement opened healing, yellow for the sun, green for nature, turquoise for art, indigo for the doors for the social acceptance of alternative lifestyles and progressive ideals amongst the white harmony, and violet for spirit. middle class. The movement gained momentum as the Civil Rights Movement became increasingly successful and as the U.S. military intervention of Vietnam began to take a negative turn. It was literary movement that rejected official literature style, materialism and conformism developing from the 1940s in America.

8 9 Art and The First Great War (1914-1918)

We know it as World War I, but at the time, it was the first Great War. During the First World War the British government developed a variety of art schemes to record and document all aspects of the conflict from the violence of the fighting fronts to the social and industrial change at home. Art was seen as the means to convey the righteousness of Britain’s cause, to bear witness to the experience of war, to remember the fallen and provide effective propaganda.

But in 1914, that all changed. The first Great War, which brought about unprecedented loss of life, also saw the destruction that could be incurred through the use of technology and science, such as mustard gas and military weaponry, and aircraft. Art, freedom and creativity will change society Mass deportations broke up art circles. Artists were drafted to the front and many were either killed or maimed. The artists who remaiwned at home represented faster than politics.” the changing attitudes toward war on their canvases. A new art emerged out of Europe around this time, reflecting the misery, devastation, and cruelty of war.

“ Victor Pinchuk

10 11 Art Movements of 20th Century 2 12 The 20th century opened new vistas and possibilities that expanded everyday human experience and greatly influenced the world of art and original painting. From the earliest years of the turn of the century, artists were beginning to experiment with subject matter, creating realities reflective more of their own inner visions than what lay before them in nature. Concurrent with this was a search for new techniques, materials, and approaches to support these forays into new terrains. The art movements of the 20th century continue to influence the images being created to this day.

As a result, 20th century painting movements and trends inspired artists to set out in many divergent directions, resulting in a broad range of styles and forms. Here are some of the major movements that defined and shaped art in the 20th century and which still influence the art being produced today The Vitality of a new movement in art must This period saw many radical changes in people’s lives: an increased pace of technological and industrial change; the rapid spread of large urban be guaged by the fury it arouses.” centres;the growth of consumerism on a large scale; and the chilling reality of mass warfare.

After the relative peace of most of the 19th century, rivalry between European powers erupted in 1914 with Logan Pearsall Smith the outbreak of the first World War. Over 60 million European soldiers were mobilized from 1914–1918 as countries around the world were called into the conflict. With the widespread death and destruction of the “ greatest war the world had ever seen, art increasingly became a means for escapism, a way to abstract life and escape the difficulties of the human condition. Art historians moved away from abstraction toward the production of art critical of war.

14 15 Fauvism developed in France to become Dadaism or was a form of artistic the first new artistic style of the 20th century. anarchy born out of disgust for the Dadaism In contrast to the dark, vaguely disturbing social, political and cultural values of nature of much turn-of-the-century, the time. It arose as a reaction to World Symbolist art, the Fauves produced bright War I and the nationalism It embraced cheery landscapes and figure paintings, elements of art, , poetry, theatre, characterized by pure vivid color and bold and politics. Dada was not so distinctive brushwork. Characterised by much a style of art like Cubism or strong colours and fierce brushwork, the Fauvism; it was more a protest movement best known Fauve artists include Henri with an anti-establishment manifesto.

Fauvism Matisse, André Derain, and Maurice Dada had far-reaching effects on the 20th Vlaminck who pioneered its distinctive style. Century Art and also the mindset of people.

The movement was conceived as ‘a Founded by the poet André Breton in Paris new way of representing the world’, and in 1924, Surrealism was an artistic and assimilated outside influences, such as literary movement. It proposed that the African art, as well as new theories on Enlightenment—the influential 17th- and In the 20th Century, something to be called the nature of reality, such as Einstein’s 18th-century intellectual movement that Theory of Relativity.Cubism is often championed reason and individualism— PROFOUND ART, divided into two phases – the Analytic had suppressed the superior qualities of Surrealism phase (1907-12), and the Synthetic phase the irrational, unconscious mind.Surrealist (1913 through the 1920s). Other major automatism is a method of art-making you have to not be able to exponents of Cubism included Robert in which theartist suppresses conscious Cubism Delaunay, , , control over the making process, allowing understand it. and Fernand Léger. the unconscious mind to have great sway. In the late 1940s, An Italian avant-garde that sprang up with the idea of expressing a state took speed, technology and as its of mind. Considered the birth of “modern inspiration, Futurism portrayed the dynamic art”, artists who painted during the Abstract character of 20th century life, glorified war Expressionism movement wanted viewers and the machine age, and favoured the to really reach deeply for understanding of growth of Fascism.The movement was an image. They wanted the ideas about the at its strongest from 1909, when Filippo painting to be free of conventional thinking Marinetti’s first manifesto of Futurism and believed that their images would have a appeared. Futurism was unique in that unique, instinctive meaning for each viewer. it was a self-invented art movement.hen Some of the famed artists during this time

Futurism Filippo Marinetti’s first manifesto of Futurism period were Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko appeared, until the end of World War One. 16 17 Fauvism 3 18 auvism is the name applied to the work produced by a group of artists from around 1905 to 1910, which is characterised by strong colours and fierce brushwork. The name les fauves (‘the wild beasts’) was coined by the critic when he saw the work of and André Derain in an exhibition. The paintings Derain and Matisse exhibited were the result of a summer spent working together in Collioure in the South of France and were made using bold, non-naturalistic colours, and wild loose dabs of paint. The forms of the subjects were also simplified. Fauvism can be seen as an extreme extension of the post- impressionism of Van Gogh combined with the neo-impressionism of Seurat. The influences of these earlier movements inspired Matisee and his followers to reject traditional three-dimensional space and instead use flat areas or patches of colour to create a new pictorial space. Fauvism can also be seen as a form of expressionism in its use of brilliant colors and spontaneous brushwork. It has often been compared to German expressionism, which emerged at around the same time and was also inspired by the developments of post-impressionism. Henri Matisse is generally considered the principal founding artist of Fauvism. In 1896, Matisse, then an unknown art student, visited the F“It is only after years of preparation that the young artist should touch color - not color used descriptively, that is, but as a means of personal expression.” - Henri Matisse artist John Peter Russell on the island of Belle Île off the The story of Fauvism starts with the chance meeting When shown at the 1905 Salon d’Automne (an coast of Brittany. Russell was an Impressionist painter; (and subsequent friendship) of Derain and Vlaminck in exhibition organized by artists in response to the 1900 – after a train they were both on derailed outside conservative policies of the official exhibitions, or salons) Paris, forcing all passengers to get out and walk. in Paris, the contrast to traditional art was so striking Matisse had never previously seen an Impressionist work Also crucial was the summer (of 1905) that Derain it led critic Louis Vauxcelles to describe the artists as and another friend – Matisse – spent together in the “Les Fauves” or “wild beasts,” and thus the name was born. directly, and was so shocked at the style that he left after ten Mediterranean fishing port of Collioure, in the south One of several Expressionist movements to emerge of France. There they painted a number of the works in the early 20th century, Fauvism was short lived, days, saying, “I couldn’t stand it any more.” The next year which would feature in that year’s Autumn Salon. and by 1910, artists in the group had diverged Their early works reveal the influence of Post-Impressionist toward more individual interests. For many artists he returned as Russell’s student and abandoned his earth- artists, especially Neo-Impressionists like , who adopted similar approach, Fauvism became a whose interest in color’s optical effects had led to a stepping stone for future developments in their style. colored palette for bright Impressionist colors, later stating,

Matisse employed a pointillist style by applying paint in Like many modern artists, the Fauves also found “Russell was my teacher, and Russell explained color theory small dabs and dashes. Instead of the subtle blending inspiration in objects from Africa and other non-western of complimentary colors typical of Neo-Impressionism cultures. Seen through a colonialist lens, the formal to me.” Russell had been a close friend of Vincent van Seurat, for example, the combination of firey oranges, distinctions of African art reflected current notions yellows, greens and purple is almost overpowering of –the belief that, lacking the corrupting Gogh and gave Matisse a Van Gogh . Many of the in its vibrant impact. The Fauvist movement has influence of European civilization, non-western peoples been compared to German Expressionism, both were more in tune with the primal elements of nature. Fauve characteristics first cohered in Matisse’s painting. projecting brilliant colors and spontaneous brushwork Another major Fauve was As an artist, Derain occupied a place midway between (1876–1958), who might be called a “natural” the impetuous Vlaminck and the controlled Matisse. Fauve because his use of highly intense color corresponded to his own exuberant nature.

20 21 Following the Salon d’Automne of 1905 which marked the beginning of Fauvism, the Salon des Salon d’Automne 1905 Indépendants of 1906 marked the first time all the Fauves would exhibit together. The centerpiece of The Salon d’Automne (Autumn Salon), is an annual art the exhibition was Matisse’s monumental Le Bonheur exhibition held in Paris, France since 1903. Perceived as de Vivre (The Joy of Life). Critics were horrified by a reaction against the conservative policies of the official the flatness, bright colors, eclectic style and mixed Paris Salon, this massive exhibition almost immediately technique of .The triangular became the showpiece of developments and innovations composition is closely related to Paul Cézanne’s in 20th-century painting, drawing, sculpture, engraving, Bathers. The third group exhibition of the Fauves architecture and decorative arts. In addition to the transpired at the Salon d’Automne of 1906, held from 1903 inaugural exhibition, three other dates remain 6 October to 15 November. Metzinger exhibited his historically significant for the Salon d’Automne: 1905 Fauvist/Divisionist Portrait of M. . bore witness to the birth of Fauvism; 1910 witnessed the launch Cubism; and 1912 resulted in a xenophobe and anti-modernist quarrel in the National Assembly (France). After viewing the boldly colored canvases of Henri Matisse, André Derain, , Maurice de Vlaminck, , , and I don’t paint things. I only paint the at the Salon d’Automne of 1905, the critic Louis Vauxcelles disparaged the painters as “fauves” difference between things.” (wild beasts), thus giving their movement the name by which it became known, Fauvism. Despite the reputation for the contrary, the Salon d’Automne in 1905 was rather well received by the press.

Apollinaire referred to Matisse as the “fauve of fauves”. Works by both Derain and Matisse are criticized for the ugliness of their models. Vauxcelles described their work Henri Matisse with the phrase “Donatello chez les fauves” (“Donatello among the wild beasts”), contrasting the “orgy of pure “ tones” with a -style sculpture that shared the room with them. (La ) is a painting by Henri Matisse. An oil on canvas, it depicts Matisse’s wife, Amelie.[1] It was painted in 1905 and exhibited at the Salon d’Automne during the fall of the same year, along with works by André Derain, Maurice de Vlaminck and several other artists known as “Fauves”. 22 23 Perhaps this goes without saying but, because the Fauves eschewed normal painting techniques to delineate shapes, simple forms Key Characteristics of Fauvism were a necessity. You may have noticed that the Fauves tended to paint landscapes or scenes of everyday life within landscapes. Landscapes are not fussy, they beg for large areas of color. Given the brilliant colours and spontaneous brushwork, the movement on which Fauvism had the greatest impact was probably German Expressionism: in its Simplified Forms two forms, The Blue Rider and Die Brücke.

Nothing took precedence over color for the Fauves. Raw, pure color was not secondary to the composition, it defined the composition. It is the eye of ignorance that assigns For example, if the artist painted a red sky, the rest of the landscape had to follow suit. To maximize the effect of a red sky, he might a fixed and unchangeable color to choose lime green buildings, yellow water, orange sand, and royal blue boats. He might Colour every object; beware of this stumbling choose other, equally vivid colors. A radical use of unnatural colors, separated color from its usual representational and realistic role, block.”

Did you know that Fauvism is a type of “ Expressionism? Well, it is an early type, perhaps even the first type. Expressionism, that pouring forth of the artist’s emotions through heightened color and popping forms, is another word for “passion” at its most basic meaning. The Fauves were nothing if not passionate, were they? The one thing you can count on is that none of the Fauves ever went with realistically-colored scenery. Expressiveness

24 25 How Long Was the Movement? First, bear in mind that Fauvism wasn’t technically a movement. It had no written guidelines or manifesto, no membership roster, and no exclusive group exhibitions. “Fauvism” is simply a word of periodization we use in place of: “An assortment of painters who were loosely acquainted with one another, and experimented with color in roughly the same way at roughly the same time.” That said, Fauvism was exceptionally brief. a few temporary devotees including (1882-1963), (1879-1949) and (1877-1953), and were on the public’s radar for two more years through 1907.

Art must not be intelligent; art is a jouisance, an enjoyment.”

Starting with Henri Matisse (1869-1954), who worked Influences and how it influenced independently, a few artists began to explore using planes Thus the dotted motif was replaced with freely applied of undiluted color around the turn of the century. Matisse, future movements: wide chunky brushstrokes of pure colour, and com- André Derain Naturally, Matisse and his friends were not working in Maurice de Vlaminck (1876-1958), André Derain (1880- positions were relatively simple, sometimes abstract. a vacuum. First and foremost, they owed a considera- “ 1954), Albert Marquet (1875-1947) and The work of Paul Gauguin still largely unknown to the ble debt to Monet’s Impressionism, whose non-naturalist (1875-1949) all exhibited in the Salon d’Automme in public - was another important influence, especial- colour schemes had caused such a scandal in the mid- 1903 and 1904. No one really paid attention, though, ly for the flat areas of pure colour associated with the 1870s. Without the pathfinding work of Impressionist until the Salon of 1905, when all of their works were style of . Gauguin’s seminal retrospective painters, it is doubtful that Fauvism could have happened hung together in the same room. It would be accurate at the 1906 Salon d’Automne was hugely influential in the way it did. , too, was a contributing factor. to say that the Fauves’ heyday began in 1905, then. The on the development of Fauvist-style expressionism. Neo-Impressionism was another influence, except that Fauves had already begun to drift in other directions Fauvists also borrowed from Gauguin’s primitivism, as Fauvist painters found it too restrained and replaced its at that point, and they were stone cold done by 1908. well as from both African sculpture and Oceanic art. harmony with a bolder, more primitive form of expression. 26 27 Famous Artists and Artworks The below artworks are the most important in Fauvism - that both overview the major ideas of the movement, and highlight the greatest achievements by each artist in Fauvism.

Luxe, Calme et Volupte Artist: Henri Matisse

Henri Matisse was a French painter and sculptor who helped forge . From his early From the moment I held the box of Fauvist works to his late cutouts, he emphasized expansive fields of color, the expressive potential of colors in my hands, I knew this was my gesture, and the sensuality inherent in art-making.

This early work by Matisse clearly indicates the artist’s life. I threw myself into it like a beast stylistic influences, most notably ’s and Paul Signac’s , in the use of tiny dabs of color to create a visual frisson. What sets that plunges towards the thing it loves.” this work apart from these more rigid methods, however, is Matisse’s intense concentrations of pure color. The oranges, yellows, greens, and other colors all maintain “ their own discrete places on the picture plane, never Henri Matisse quite merging to form the harmonious tonality that both Seurat and Signac were known for, and instead heighten the almost vertiginous effect created by the striking dots of paint. Matisse took this work’s title, which translates as “luxury, peace, and pleasure,” from Charles Baudelaire’s poem L’Invitation au Voyage (Invitation to a Voyage).

28 29 Yacht at Decorated with Flags Artist: Raoul Dufy

Raoul Dufy was a French painter primarily associated with the short-lived, but important, Fauvist movement. Dufy’s colorful outdoor scenes depicting gardens, What I wish to show when I paint is the way social events and busy seascapes are his most famous, yet he also created popular fabric designs. I see things with my eyes and in my heart.”

Following in the footsteps of and Eugene Boudin, Dufy painted numerous scenes of Le Havre, a port town located on France’s northwestern coast. This view includes several docked ships against a Raoul Dufy background of local architecture. Although this imagery is largely naturalistic, Dufy’s rejection of traditional perspective and his unconventional paint application are avant-garde. The scene is painted in a stylized notation of quick brushstrokes: a scattering of small curved “ dabs for the waves, tiny blocks of color for the quayside buildings, and rough, abbreviated strokes for the forms of passing pedestrians. From the ship’s mast at the center of the composition dances an array of nautical flags; each one is a small abstraction of color and shape.

30 31 Portrait of Henri Matisse

Artist: André Derain

André Derain, the co-founder of Fauvism, was a French artist whose paintings exhibit the writhing energetic lines Fauvism was our ordeal by fire... colours became and bright colors characteristic of the movement. He strove to keep art modern and current throughout his career. charges of dynamite. They were expected to charge

Derain painted this portrait of Matisse during the artists’ shared summer in Collioure, when the two men were light... The great merit of this method was to free the experimenting side-by-side in their work. As in most Fauvist portraiture, a detailed likeness of the subject picture from all imitative and conventional contact.” was not the artist’s goal. Derain’s chief focus was to express a state of mind through the use of visible brushwork and fluid lines, both of which accentuated his applications of pure color. The sitter’s right side is André Derain shadowed in violet and turquoise, and the left side of “ his face is highlighted in broad strokes of pink and red; this non-naturalistic use of saturated color underscores the figure’s direct, intense gaze. While the background is painted in thin, vertical strokes, Matisse’s emerges more strongly in impasto brushwork, as if Derain were building it up from the paint itself, rather than through the traditional use of shading or perspective.

32 33 References

https://www.theartstory.org/movement-fauvism-artworks.htm

https://useum.org/exhibition/curated/Fauvism/History-of-Fauvism

https://study.com/academy/lesson/fauvism-definition-art-characteristics.html Post Fauvism https://edition.cnn.com/2014/10/30/opinion/merjian-art-modern-wwi/index.html https://www2.palomar.edu/users/mhudelson/studyguides/20thcentlate_wa.html

For many artists who adopted similar approach, Fauvism became a stepping https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/victor_pinchuk_540337?src=t_art stone for future developments in their style. By 1908 most of the main https://owlcation.com/humanities/20th-Century-Art-Movements-with-Timeline artists in the group had moved away from the expressive nature of fauvism. https://www.britannica.com/art/Fauvism One of fauvism’s founders, André Derain, adopted a more https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/art-1010/early-abstraction/fauvism-matisse/a/a-beginners-guide-to-fauvism conventional neoclassical style seen in his work titled The Table. https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-matisse-fauvists-harnessed-expressive-power-color Others who were also part of The Fauves enjoyed further success https://www.britannica.com/editor/The-Editors-of-Encyclopaedia-Britannica/4419 with their style developments. Georges Braque went on to develop https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-matisse-fauvists-harnessed-expressive-power-color cubism with , whilst Henri Matisse continued to use http://www.mcs.csuhayward.edu/~malek/Matisse/matisse26.jpg the distinctive fauvist traits of bright emotive colours, with simpler

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The book aims at relating the current art and design to its origin, and how was it influenced by the conditions surrounding the artists at the point of time in 1900’s. Along with that, understanding the importance of contribution of different artists to develop different art styles, that we randomly use today, without any knowledge of its connection to the historic events and the reason that style was generated. Artists were historians. If a battle was lost or a ship sank, the artist painted the picture and it would be exhibited to tell the story. The painting would travel and tell the tale to other parts of the world. This is where the concept of visual communication came in. It also describes how art and design interact with each other, and at a certain stage, it also proves how they both differ from each other. If we don’t care about the art history, the future of art would not have any history to it.

2018| October Edition| Art Movements Volume 1.0| Issue 7 Art History Publications Pvt.Ltd. Editing and Creative- Rohan Marathe