Expressionism arose in Europe in the late 19th and early 20th centuries as a response to increasing industrialization and urbanization. It emphasized subjective experience and emotion over objective realism. As an art movement, Expressionism used distorted figures and vibrant colors to depict raw emotional states. In Germany, Expressionism served as a response to the horrors of World War I and rejected realism. Key aspects of Expressionism included its emergence in German film in the 1920s, exploration of movement and gesture in dance by Rudolf Laban and Mary Wigman from 1911-1936, and new techniques focusing on light, lines and contrasting shadows that were employed to depict the modern city.

1. Expressionism as
art movement

2. Personal information
Name - Hina Parmar
Roll no - 10
Sem - 2(M.A.)
Enrollment no - 4069206420220021
Batch - 2022-24
Email- hinaparmar612@gmail.com
Subject – Surrealism movement in Indian Art
Paper code - 22403
Paper no - 110
Paper - History of English Literature from 1900 to
2000
Submitted to - Department of English, M.K.B.U

3. 6
5
4
3
2
1
Points to
ponder
Introduction
Expressionism and
it’s Origin
History of Expressionism
New Aesthetics
Conclusion
German Expressionist film,
Expressionism and Dance

4. Introduction
Expressionism arose in Europe in the late nineteenth
and early twentieth centuries as a response to
bourgeois complacency and the increasing
mechanization and urbanization of society. Painters
such as Vincent van Gough, Paul Gauguin, and
Edvard Munch helped to lay the foundation for
Expressionism in their use of distorted figures and
vibrant color schemes to depict raw and powerfully
emotional states of mind. Munch’s The Scream
(1894), For example a lithograph depicting a figure
with a contorted face Screaming in horror.
(Dhanalakshmi)

5. Expressionism and its origin
The expressionism came to life in countries such as
Germany where its served as a response to the horrors of world war
I. There was no reaction to realism which was dominant in the
nineteenth century. Realism was a style of literature that attempted
to represent reality as objectively and straightforward as possible
Expressionism, on the other hand, emphasized
subjective experience and emotion. (Dhanalakshmi)
Although today the German Brucke is acclaimed as the pioneer
group in the German expressionist movement, it is surprising to
learn that neither the group nor any of the individual Brucke artists
were ever specifically called expressionist during the 1905 13 period
of the Bruckes existence. Even up to that movement in 1917 when
Ernst Ludwing Kirchner permanently left Germany to reside in
Switzerland, he had only once been called an expressionist in his
native land. (Gordon)

6. History of Expressionism
As An art movement, the term
expressionism indicates the conservatories
of the sensitive or interpretative mode of
sharing reactions. The word expressionism
was first used in 1850, mostly to describe
paintings where an artist’s strong emotions
were clearly shown. The popularity of
Expressionism increased when Antonin
Matějček 1910 coined the term. According
to Czech, art historians envisioned to signify
the opposite of Impressionism and
designate one of the main currents of art
that express the highly subjective view of a
wide range of modern artists.(Dhanalakshmi)

7. German Expressionist Film
Expressionist film emerged during the
Weimar Republic era (1919-1933), and
was most pronounced in a number of
films from the early 1920s. The stylistic
and thematic concerns of
Expressionism are most fully on display
in The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1919/20).
Designed by key figures from
expressionist painting and
theater, Caligari’s highly stylized sets
employ extreme angles, exaggerated
proportions, and dizzying visual
patterns.(Ryan Conrath)

8. Expressionism and Dance
In its relation to dance, Expressionism must be
approached through diverse but related histories in the
realms of theater, dance, and the visual arts. These
histories trace a tendency from the nineteenth century
through the 1930s toward the exploration of
movement and gesture as a primary language and
communicator of inner life.
Expressionism in dance is largely associated with the
years 1911 to 1936 and the work in Switzerland and
Germany of its primary theorist, Rudolf Laban, and
choreographer Mary Wigman.(Nell Andrew)

9. New Aesthetics
Ludwig Meidner was one of the artists who were aware of
the fact that the pace of their time couldn’t be expressed
through the painting technique of Impressionism any more.
In his article Anleitung zum Malen von Grossstadtbildern
published in 1914,he criticises the impressionistic way of
portraying the city and he emphasises that the mixture of
urban architecture cannot be painted in the same manner
as a flowerbed.
The new technique concentrates on light, focus and usage
of straight lines. The rays
of light are connected in bundles and fall apart into scraps;
they form contrast with the
shadows of the buildings. The pictures painted by Erich
Heckel (Stadtbahn in Berlin, 1911) or Ernst Ludwig
Kirchner (Nollendorfplatz, 1912) follow these aesthetic
principles,(Demčišák)

10. The interaction between the subject and the city
The fascination for the life and pulse of the city is just one of many
impulses that inspired the Expressionists to pick the metropolis out
as a central theme of their work.
In case of Munch's painting we only can guess why the subject is
screaming and the elements of the maybe irritating civilization are
present only through the bridge construction or ships, whereas the
subject of Meidner's picture is surrounded and seems to be
assaulted by the city, its leaning buildings, or smoking chimneys.
The sun is also a part of the irritation, because in the matter of fact
it is only a balloon. For Meidner the city becomes a place where
the catastrophic visions happen, his pictures Brennende
Stadt(1912) or Apokalyptische Stadt (1913) reveal the city as a
place of threat and fear. (Demčišák)

11. The demonic appearance of the city can be observed in
someexpressionistic poems too. Georg Heym’s texts
Der Gott der Stadt and Die Dämonen der Städte can
serve as examples. In Der Gott der Stadt, the city has
the face of the biblical God named Baal. The personified
city is surrounded by the atmosphere of evening and
darkness, the streets are filled with millions of people
diving in an ecstatic dance, the smoke of the chimneys
transforms into the smell of incense. Baal’s personality
is built on aggressive masculinity, he is furious, full of
anger and irritated, because he cannot eat and swallow
the last houses far away from him. At the end of the
poem he is compared to a butcher who is slaughtering
the streets and sends fire and fume to destroy and to eat
them. (Demčišák)

12. CONCLUSION
Art began with stone carvings and writings which
represented objects, animals, and rites that were
organized by civilians at that time. These terms and
techniques are collected by archaeologists, and it is
the proven evidence for their existence. Art history
is the study of all art and cultural eternities. Art
history carries us closer to the footprint of
civilization throughout history because it’s the story
of us and our global force to create. Since every
artwork is realistic and authentic. For example,
when people look at Munch’s painting, they have
two different opinions. It might be a pessimistic or
optimistic vision of life.

13. Citation
Demčišák, Ján. “The City through the Eyes of Expressionism.”
Ethnologia Actualis, vol. 16, no. 1, 2016, pp. 79–96., doi:10.1515/eas-
2016-0005.
Dhanalakshmi, B. Background of the Visualization in Expressionism, vol. 10, no. 8, Aug. 2022.
Gordon, Donald E. “On the Origin of the Word ‘Expressionism.’” Journal of the Warburg and
Courtauld Institutes, vol. 29, 1966, pp. 368–85. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/750724.
Accessed 14 Mar. 2023.
Poppelreuter, Tanja et al. "Expressionism." The Routledge Encyclopedia of Modernism. :
Taylor and Francis, 2016. Date Accessed 15 Mar. 2023
https://www.rem.routledge.com/articles/overview/expressionism.
doi:10.4324/9781135000356-REMO23-1

14. Thank You