Avant-Garde
Originally a French term, literally the “advanced guard” or
the part of an army that goes ahead of the rest.
Applied to art, it
means that which is in the forefront, which introduces and explores new forms
and in some cases new subjects’ matter.
Although the term appeared in the first half of the
nineteenth century, the first ‘Avant-garde’ art may be said to be that of the
Realist Gustave Courbet.
In some ways the term
avant-garde can be said to be synonymous with ‘Modern’.
Although frequently identified with art of the early
twentieth century, avant-garde is a wider concept (including music and
literature), in which the stress lies on the quality and originality of the
artist’s vision and ideas.
Cubism
Cubism combines perceptions of an object from varying points
of view in a single painting or sculpture.
Its originators Pablo
Picasso and Georges Braque were highly inspired by Paul Cezanne’s earlier
experiments in their development of cubism.
They exaggerated the geometric basis of objects, dissected
and then reconstructed perspective, producing disjointed images that often
highly perplexing. Cubism reached its climax between 1906 and 1914
Expressionism
Term applied to the movement of artists for whom the
representation of subjective feelings and experiences was more than the
depiction of reality.
Many Expressionist
works feature bright colours and unnatural figures; some can be described as
totally abstract.
Expressionist artists worked in various places in Europe,
mainly in Germany. The movement enjoyed its heyday between 1905 and 1920
Fauvism
Term derived from the French word Fauves , or ‘Wild Beasts’
, which the art critic Louis Vauxcelles used in 1905 to denigrate the work of
Henri Matisse and his fellow artists.
However, the artists
adopted this intended insult as a nickname for they felt it represented
euphoria and total creative freedom.
The fauvist style is characterised by vivid colours, rough
brush strokes and simplified, often distorted forms. The movement reached its
climax between 1905 and 1908
Expressionism
Like Fauvism a term originally used mockingly by critics and
subsequently adopted by the representatives of the movement.
Impressionism developed in France after 1860 and flourished
until 1900.
The impressionists rejected every form of ‘Academic’
representation and trusted entirely to their own perception. Their paintings
often display an intense combination of sun and shadow
Modernism
A broad movement encompassing architecture, art and design,
which deliberately sets out reject the past as a model for art of the present.
Because of insistence
that the demands of art change with the times, it is characterised by constant
innovation and is inextricably linked with social ideals and the concept of
progress, and the terms’ Modernism’ and ‘Modern Art’ been applied to the art movements
succeeding Courbet and his pronounced Realism, right to the appearance of
abstract art and its various manifestations into the 1960s
Nabis
Group of artists which formed in Paris in the final decade
of the nineteenth century.
Drawing their inspiration
from Paul Gauguin, they preferred expressive use of colour and form to
realistic representation.
They endeavoured to
endow their work with a powerful mystical charge which they expressed in their
name .Nabis (Hebrew for ‘the Prophet).
Post-impressionism
Term used to denote the work of artists (1880-1900) who took
the principles of the impressionists a step further towards individual creative
freedom.
They considered
impressionism too impermanent in its disregard for painting structure and
colour relationships.
The work of the Post-impressionists is often emotionally
charged and full of symbolic elements.
Salon d’Automne
Salon is a French word for both room and social gathering,
used from the eighteenth century as the title of exhibitions (initially
biennial and from 1831 annual) in Paris organised by Academie.
As a reaction to the conservative
official institution the unofficial Salon des Independants appeared in 1884.
This awarded no
prizes and had no jury, any artist could join.
With the decline in standards at the Salon des
Independants a new salon appeared in
1903, the Salon d’Automne (previously all salons had been held in spring.
Here the jury was chosen by drawing lots amongst new
members. The most famous Salon d’Automne was that of 1905, at which the Fauves
gained notoriety.
Suprematism
Early twentieth-century art movement, a dorm of abstract
painting, associated with Kazimir Malevich .
Adherents to Suprematism sought spiritual reality ,
expressed in strictly essential forms and colours that engendered total
geometric abstraction.
Surrealism
Movement which began in literature around 1924 and focused
on the subconscious and dream in particular.
Surrealists set no limits on the imagination and endeavoured
to exclude all forms of rationality and every kind of value judgement.
Symbolism
This was, like Surrealism, initially a literary movement
that also took root in art.
It developed in France around 1880.
Its adherents resisted anything bourgeois, emphasising
emotions and the disorientation it provoked.
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They used mythological and historical scenes as vehicles for the creation of fantastical, mysterious moods.
