Post-Impressionism Flashcards
Vincent van Gogh, Starry Night, 1889
most famous work, painted out of window of asylum near St. Remy
new type of impasto- unblended paint
Post-Impressionist: not based on realistic view of world but artist’s view, based on emotions- very personal interpretation of a landscape- expressionistic
meditation on death w/ symbols of death: church, cypress (graveyards), stars (final destination of soul)
believed on death, soul reabsorbed into universe
inspired by Japanese woodblock prints (The Great Wave)
Paul Gauguin, Manao tupapau (The Specter Watches over Her), 1892
Post-Impressionist, expressionistic type like van Gogh, but goes even further in liberating brush from formal obligations; moved to Tahiti to “escape” modern life
based on letter in which artist’s teenage mistress panicked because imagines she is surrounded by ghosts
comment on reclining female nude but more scandalous and avant garde b/c it is sexualization of dark, “inferior” race; on stomach but nevertheless suggests genitalia
escape to “primitivism” (colonization of the body)
not illusionistic- expressionistic and flattened, abstracted- evokes mood/state of mind
Paul Cezanne, Mont Sainte-Victoire, 1885-1887
Like Seurat- analytic and scientific approach to art- art needs to be timeless and permanent, “Father of Cubism”
Mont SV is near home in Southern France
breaks down composition into various geometric planes, analytic approach to perception which contests illusionism of scene
beginning of 20th century art struggle between 2D and 3D, expressionistic (artist’s feelings) vs. analytical
Georges Seurat, Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, 1884-8
Other approach to Post-Impressionism- developed Pointillism (Divisionism), he called it “chromo-luminarism”)- separates color into distinct components- base color then complementary colors- colors blend in eye at a distance- optical effect
exhibited in last Impressionist exhibition and his most famous work
same subjects as Impressionists (bourgoisie at leisure), yet not fleeting- fixed, grid-like, left to right, symmetrical- systematic & scientific approach to paint application
