Expressionism in art is a trend that emerged in Europe in the 20th century. Translated from Latin, "expressio" means "expression." This trend was so popular in the twenties that it captured all areas of art and was clearly manifested in painting, literature, music, theater, architecture and cinema.
After all, events in Europe did not bode well. The war, the rapid growth of industry and a sharp change in the well-being of people. During this period of time, many changed their worldview, and new discoveries in science made it possible to look at the world around us with different eyes. Therefore, creative people simply could not stay away and through their work demonstrated their attitude to the world.
Expressionism in painting was based on subjective feelings and fantasies arising from the authors of the works. Artists through their works conveyed their emotional state, which was characterized by spiritual confusion, pessimism, despair and petty-bourgeois rebellion. The basic principles of the flow was the conscious distortion of the real world, giving objects exaggerated and angular shapes. Thus, the authors tried to make the audience empathize, arouse real fear and negative attitude towards cruel reality.
Expressionism in painting manifested itself very vividly thanks to its ancestors: a group of German artists from the Bridge and Blue Horseman associations. And later their followers: V.V. Kandinsky, Vincent Van Gogh, James Ensor, E. Barlach, P. Picasso, Edward Munch, M. Chagall, P. Klee and others - tried in their dramatic works to express their attitude to what is happening, some works had a clear anti-war orientation (J. Gros, O. Dix).
All vices of life, ugliness and insoluble contradictions of reality caused expressionists feelings of anxiety, irritation, disgust, which they transferred to their canvases with the help of hypertrophied shapes, angular and distorted lines, dark colors, rough and quick strokes.
The expressionism of the picture was enhanced by the choice of contrasting colors, a vivid expression of forms in order to evoke emotions from the audience, not to let them remain indifferent. Simple stories of everyday life were transmitted through the prism of artists' vision and simply went through the roof with emotions. Expressionism in painting most clearly gave an idea of the mood of that time, about throwing and suffering of people. The perception of the world through artistic and personal performance allowed artists to talk with viewers using such unusual artistic manifestations.
Expressionism in painting is an opportunity to demonstrate through one’s emotions an attitude towards something. Having a delicate and sensitive nature, artists try to convey their vision and experiences to the audience using artistic images . Experiments with color and shapes, the search for new images continue today.
Therefore, it is possible to attribute to this direction work of a similar orientation, but not in its pure form, but as a symbiosis of new interesting directions. Making people truly empathize is not an easy task. Since, for all the complexity of life and the evils of society, there is still no really oppressive situation on the basis of which this
trend in art has revived
.