How do you appreciate expressionist art?

[Bonehelm]

"Expressionism is the tendency of an artist to distort reality for an emotional effect; it is a subjective art form."

"To abstract expressionism...technically, an important predecessor is surrealism, with its emphasis on spontaneous, automatic or subconscious creation."

Hmm what is surrealism then?

[Bunny]

Surrealism is another school of art which uses images to express subconscious "realities.' In one branch of Surrealism, all of the elements are created in extremely realistic fashion, but they are blended in such a way to create an unreal picture. The painting thus cannot be called realist, so the term "surreal" was coined to describe it. A good example of this is René Magritte's painting below.  Both the sky and the street scene below are painted as realistically as possible, but they are showing the scene with different elements at different times of day -- hence the sense of conflict.  Eventually surrealism also became more and more abstract.  Other surrealist painters include Salvador Dalí, Giorgio di Chirico, Yves Tanguy, Vassily Kandinsky, André Masson, Francisco Picabia, Max Ernst and Juan Gris.  Surrealism is also closely related and associated with DaDaism and artists such as Man Ray.  What ties all of these schools together is the dependence on Freudian theory; the Surrealist Manifesto was in fact written by André Bretonne who was trained as a psychiatrist, and actually practiced psychoanalysis.

[Bunny]

"Expressionism is the tendency of an artist to distort reality for an emotional effect; it is a subjective art form."

"To abstract expressionism...technically, an important predecessor is surrealism, with its emphasis on spontaneous, automatic or subconscious creation."

Hmm what is surrealism then?

Compare the automatic drawing of André Masson to the drip paintings of Pollock.  Both are very, very similar in concept.  That's why Abstract Expressionism is more closely related to surrealism than Expressionism and many critics and historians prefer to term it "Action Painting."

[Anne]

£5.7m sale makes Scot Europe's most expensive living painter
PHIL MILLER, Arts Corresponent February 09 2007

http://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=1700.0;attach=2196;image

ROCKING THE BOAT: Sotheby's auctioneer Tobias Meyer sells Peter Doig's painting The White Canoe for £5,732,000, about five times the estimate.
He only creates eight paintings a year, he was born in Edinburgh but lives in the Caribbean, and he is little known outside the art world - but now Peter Doig has become Europe's most expensive living painter.

Doig's "masterpiece", White Canoe, has been sold for a record £5.7m at Sotheby's in London, a figure five times its predicted price, and means he now has the financial clout of other living painters such as David Hockney and Lucian Freud.

Doig, born in the Scottish capital in 1959, moved to Canada as a child and grew up there, before returning to the UK to train as an artist.

During the 1990s, when pure painting somewhat lost its lustre in the contemporary arts world, he remained engaged in the traditional form and now his work is "very commercial", according to Francis Outred, Sotherby's senior director.

On Tuesday night, furious telephone bidding led to the painting's rapid rise in price, and thunderous applause greeted the final successful bid for the painting, which had been expected to go for between £800,000 and £1.2m.

White Canoe, painted in 1991, was bought by an anonymous bidder, the auction house said.

Works by other greats including Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein also went under the hammer during the contemporary art sale, raising £45.7m in total.

Oliver Barker, head of Sotheby's contemporary art department in London, said: "We are absolutely thrilled with the enormous, unprecedented success of tonight's sale, and especially with the world record price achieved for a work by Peter Doig - cementing his position among the finest painters of his generation.


ROCKING THE BOAT: Sotheby's auctioneer Tobias Meyer sells Peter Doig's painting The White Canoe for £5,732,000, about five times the estimate.
"What was most notable this evening was the depth and the strength of the bidding for top-quality works across a range of categories."

Doig is best known for his landscapes based on childhood scenes, and has now based himself in the tiny Caribbean state of Trinidad.

One of his last major sales was in June last year, when his canvas Iron Hill was auctioned for a then career record of £1,128,000, following an exhibition of his work by Charles Saatchi, the leading art collector.

In 2005 he was one of the artists exhibited The Triumph of Painting at the Saatchi Gallery in London.

Mr Outred said: "He has been the flag bearer for painting when it came back into fashion. A lot of artists who are now coming out are quoting him as a big influence.

"His works are very commercial objects, very traditional, very romantic and also incredibly complex."

He added: "The British claim he is British, the Canadians think he is Canadian, but he lives in Trinidad, and works in Germany: he's a truly modern day international artist.

"It was an amazing price and we were a little stunned. We think he is second only to Jasper Johns in terms of the price for a single painting by a living artist.

"I think the price was so high for a combination of reasons - he produces very little, he only paints around eight a year, so there is a lack of supply and when this masterpiece came on the market it attracted great interest.

"But I do not predict a great Doig market - it is unlikely to be repeated soon."

The music and film mogul, David Geffen, is alleged to have paid around £30m for Gray Number by Johns in a private deal in the late 1990s, and in 1998 the Metropolitan Museum of Art bought Johns' White Flag for an estimated £10m.

Mr Doig makes much use of photography, magazines, record covers and film stills in preparing his work, but has not ventured beyond paint on canvass.

"I'm not the type of person who would stop doing something because it was not in fashion," he once said.

"But there were always people interested in painting, even though people might not have been actually buying paintings. It is still something that people discussed and made."

[Szykneij]

He only creates eight paintings a year,   

Only? Is that really a small number of works per year? I would have thought more time would go into a masterpiece than 6 or 7 weeks.

[Shrunk]

I'm coming into this thread a bit late, but anyone with an interest in Pollock should see Ed Harris' movie named, strangely enough, "Pollock".  Not that it's that great a film.  The script is pretty standard "tortured genius destroys himself" fare, and Pollock himself doesn't come across as all that interesting a person.  However, it includes two outstanding performances, by Harris in the title role and Marcia Gay Harden (who won an Oscar IIRC) as Lee Krasner.  The best parts of the movie are those that depict Pollock actually painting.  Harris apparently studied films of Pollock's technique very rigorously, and it's quite mesmerizing to watch.

[Bonehelm]

Bunny, you've provided a very informative and educative read. You're Appreciated. 

[Bunny]

Bunny, you've provided a very informative and educative read. You're Appreciated. 

You're welcome.

[Bunny]

I'm coming into this thread a bit late, but anyone with an interest in Pollock should see Ed Harris' movie named, strangely enough, "Pollock".  Not that it's that great a film.  The script is pretty standard "tortured genius destroys himself" fare, and Pollock himself doesn't come across as all that interesting a person.  However, it includes two outstanding performances, by Harris in the title role and Marcia Gay Harden (who won an Oscar IIRC) as Lee Krasner.  The best parts of the movie are those that depict Pollock actually painting.  Harris apparently studied films of Pollock's technique very rigorously, and it's quite mesmerizing to watch.

Actually, it's a darn good movie, although it's not a perfect movie.  It's a great look into the creative process, and also into the crazy and dysfunctional life Pollock and Krasner lived.

[arkiv]

Has this style opposite creation processes to those of impressionist art?

[jochanaan]

I still remember a radio story I heard many years ago about Pollock.  An interviewer in Pollock's studio asked about the supposed "random" nature of his art.  Pollock growled, "You want random?  I'll show you f#@%in' random!"  He then swung his brush--and deposited a single drop of paint in the center of a doorknob more than a dozen feet away.

[vandermolen]

I like Expressionism but not Abstract Expressionism. Rouault and Ensor are two of my favourite painters.

[Wanderer]

Rouault and Ensor are two of my favourite painters.

Mine, as well. There was an excellent exhibition combining his works with those of his teacher, Moreau (Gustave Moreau - Georges Rouault. Souvenirs d'atelier) at the Gustave Moreau Museum in Paris earlier this year.

Gustave Moreau - Georges Rouault. Souvenirs d'atelier, du 27 janvier au 25 avril 2016

Gustave Moreau (1826-1898) fut professeur à l'Ecole des beaux-arts de Paris de 1892 à 1897. Georges Rouault (1871-1958) y fut son élève préféré, celui qu'il considérait comme "représentant" sa "doctrine picturale". L'exposition se propose de mettre en lumière ce qui unit les deux peintres sur le plan artistique, de confronter leurs visions du paysage, de la femme, du sacré, mais aussi de faire apparaître leur fascination commune pour la matière et la couleur. Elle permet également d'évoquer, par les souvenirs de ses élèves, l'atelier de Gustave Moreau à l'Ecole des beaux-arts et d'appréhender l'enseignement libéral de celui qui se considérait comme un passeur plus qu'un professeur : "Je suis le pont sur lequel certains de vous passeront." Fidèle au souvenir de son Maître, Rouault devint le premier conservateur du musée Gustave Moreau, fonction qu'il exerça jusqu'en 1932, et n'eut de cesse de défendre sa mémoire.

[vandermolen]

Mine, as well. There was an excellent exhibition combining his works with those of his teacher, Moreau (Gustave Moreau - Georges Rouault. Souvenirs d'atelier) at the Gustave Moreau Museum in Paris earlier this year.

Gustave Moreau - Georges Rouault. Souvenirs d'atelier, du 27 janvier au 25 avril 2016

Gustave Moreau (1826-1898) fut professeur à l'Ecole des beaux-arts de Paris de 1892 à 1897. Georges Rouault (1871-1958) y fut son élève préféré, celui qu'il considérait comme "représentant" sa "doctrine picturale". L'exposition se propose de mettre en lumière ce qui unit les deux peintres sur le plan artistique, de confronter leurs visions du paysage, de la femme, du sacré, mais aussi de faire apparaître leur fascination commune pour la matière et la couleur. Elle permet également d'évoquer, par les souvenirs de ses élèves, l'atelier de Gustave Moreau à l'Ecole des beaux-arts et d'appréhender l'enseignement libéral de celui qui se considérait comme un passeur plus qu'un professeur : "Je suis le pont sur lequel certains de vous passeront." Fidèle au souvenir de son Maître, Rouault devint le premier conservateur du musée Gustave Moreau, fonction qu'il exerça jusqu'en 1932, et n'eut de cesse de défendre sa mémoire.

How very interesting - thanks. Ensor's 'Intrigue' is one of my favourite paintings. I have a framed print of it. My wife finds it too morbid, so it is in the attic. 

http://cultured.com/images/image_files/2864/8216_m_james_ensor.jpg

Rouault's work is paradoxically very spiritual I think and there is a great compassion for suffering, which moves me. Expressionist art with a Soul:

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=rouault&prmd=isnv&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi03eOkzPPOAhVCCsAKHX3rBWIQ_AUIBygB&biw=1024&bih=672&dpr=2#imgrc=5vrg5g7e9bX8dM%3A