American Drama 565

Expressionist Art Gallery


 Nichols Home Page II Drama Introduction II Reading Schedule II Drama Resources


Definition: Expressionism in drama and art was a movement that rejected traditional methods of representing objective reality. Instead, expressionists exaggerated and distorted aspects of the outside world in order to "express" subjective moods and feelings. In other words, their landscapes and portraits were actually "mindscapes." In American drama, Eugene O'Neill and Elmer Rice are noted for their expressionist plays. Thriving from about 1910 to 1925, expressionism continues to be an important influence on experimental theatre and art.

For more information on expressionism in all the arts, click here.


Forerunners: Dutch post-impressionist Vincent Van Gogh used vibrant colors and curving lines to convey the energy and intense emotion advocated by the later expressionist artists. They also admired the emotional impact of the serene colors and simplification of form in paintings by artists like German Paula Modersohn-Becker.


Vincent Van Gogh, "Starry Night" 1889
Paula Modersohn-Becker,
"Self-Portrait with Amber Necklace" 1906


Independent Expressionists: Projecting existential anxieties into a blood-red landscape, "The Scream" (or "The Cry") by Norwegian Edvard Munch was an icon of the expressionist movement. The prints by German Kathe Kollwitz express intense feelings about the horrors of war and the need for compassion and solidarity.
 


Edvard Munch, "The Scream" 1893

"I was walking along a path with two friends -- the sun was setting -- suddenly the sky turned blood red -- I paused, feeling exhausted, and leaned on the fence -- there was blood and tongues of fire above the blue-black fjord and the city -- my friends walked on, and I stood there trembling with anxiety -- and I sensed an infinite scream passing through nature."

Edvard Munch 1892




Kathe Kollwitz, "Widows and Orphans" 1919
Kathe Kollwitz, "The Mothers" 1921/22



Kathe Kollwitz, "Self-Portrait with Hand on Forehead" 1910


Die Brucke (The Bridge): This group of expressionists from Dresden, Germany often used angular distortions and color to suggest their aversion for modern, post-industrial society (Ernst Kirchner) or to convey their preference for a kind of primal innocence in nature (Otto Muller). They believed that their social criticism of the ugliness of modern life could act as a "bridge" to a new and better future. Hitler labeled these painters (including Grosz, below) "decadent" and banned them from German art galleries.


Ernst Ludwig Kirchner,
"Two Women in the Street" 1914
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, "Self-Portrait as a Soldier"
(Selbstbildnis als Soldat) 1915



Otto Muller, "Zwei Madchen in Grunen Um" 1925
Otto Muller, "Gypsy Lovers"

Note: Muller's name, which in German has an umlaut over
the "u," is variously spelled in English as Muller or Mueller.


Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider): This group of expressionists from Munich, Germany and elsewhere in Europe used symbolic colors to suggest the spiritual transformation of modern society. The famous blue horses of Franz Marc (an animal lover) convey innocence and spirituality, the brownish colors an inwardness. Gabrielle Munter's portrait relies on similar colors and simplified shapes to express her subject's inner self. Russian Wassily Kandinsky's joyous paintings progressed from color-drenched landscapes to the nonobjective study of color itself, which made him an important forerunner of the World War II-era abstract expressionists.


Franz Marc, "Two Horses" c. 1912


Gabriele Munter, " Young Polish Woman" 1909



Wassily Kandinsky, "Autumn in Bavaria" 1908



Wassily Kandinsky, "Farbstudie Quadrate" 1913
["Color Study--Squares with Concentric Rings"]


Die Neue Sachlichkeit (The New Objectivity or New Realism): Appalled by the horrors of World War I and the economic depression and social dislocation in Germany, this group of expressionists like German Otto Dix painted shocking images of war atrocities. German artist George Grosz's simplified forms and colors express negative feelings about the decadence--prostitution, etc.--of urban life.


Otto Dix, Lichtsignale (The Flare) 1917



Georg Grosz, "Metropolis" 1917
George Grosz, "Lovesick Man" 1916


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Posted: 8-21-01

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