Let’s Take a Look at some Art History
As an art gallery, and as art lovers ourselves, we feel that it’s important for us to offer you, not only easy access to great art, but also the opportunity to learn more about art as a whole. We believe that even a basic understanding of art history can help deepen and enhance your experience as a viewer of art. So we decided to start a blog series introducing you to the artists and art movements that helped shaped art as we know it today.
There is an almost endless list of art movements originating from all over the globe and every period of history. Ranging from ones most people are already familiar with, such as Impressionism, Abstract Art, Cubism and Realism, to the more obscure, smaller movements like Geometric Abstraction, Mannerism, Fluxus and Arte Povera. We’d be here a very long time if we tried to tackle all of them, so we’ll just stick to the main players.
Impressionism
Impressionism is a term that can be generally applied to a movement founded in France in the late 19th Century, the name taken from the title of a Claude Monet piece, Impression, Soleil Levant (Impression, Sunrise). Key artists include Edgar Degas, Edouard Manet, Claude Monet, Augusta Renoir and Paul Cezanne. The Impressionist style is characterised by small, thin brush strokes, open composition, an emphasis on accurate depictions of light, ordinary day-to-day subject matter, movement and unusual visual angles.
Claude Monet’s ‘Impression Sunrise’ (1872) from which the Impressionist movement derived its name.
Impressionist artists faced harsh opposition from the traditional art community in France and were considered radical, rebelling against the strictly upheld rules of academic painting. Their pieces were formed using free brushstrokes that ignored strict lines and contours. They also moved out of the studio and into the outdoor world, painting realistic scenes of everyday modern life.
They concentrated on the overall visual effects of their paintings, rather than small details, as was taught in the art academies of the time, and combined mixed and unmixed colour, blended roughly to achieve an intense and colourful effect where the colours on the canvas seemed almost to be moving.
Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s ‘Luncheon of The Boating Party’ (1881) Here you can clearly see the thin brush strokes, movement and use of colour that Impressionism is known for.
Although Impressionism was first met with hostility from the public and critics alike, people gradually came to think that the Impressionists had managed to capture fresh and original vision of the world around them.
The Impressionist movement later led to a variety of new movements and styles, some of which we will write about later, including Neo-Impressionism, Post-Impressionism, Fauvism and Cubism.
‘The Card Players’ (1894-1895) is a series of paintings by Paul Cezanne. This is a great example of the Impressionists’ use of bold, unmixed colour.
If you’re interested in learning more about art history, there are some great resources online. Check out the links below.
Walpole Society
There are also some useful resources on our own site www.DistilleryGallery.co.uk/resources
There are also some useful resources on our own site www.DistilleryGallery.co.uk/resources
Don’t forget to follow The Distillery on Facebook @DistilleryGallery, Twitter @DistilleryGallery and Insta @Distillery_Gallery
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