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IMPRESSIONISMMarkku Leino, dap01s
Manet: Music in Tuillerien park
Topics
• Brief History
• What is Impressionism
• Impressionism in today’s media
BRIEF HISTORY
In 1860’s
• The Academy of France dictates what is to be considered as “fine art”: who will get his/her works displayed in the Salon and how the work is then received. If one wanted to be a successful artist, one had to get positive feedback from Salon’s jury.
• The paintings were supposed to be about historical, mythological or biblical events or at least contain some moral story.
• A good painting was to have very fine details and continuous colors; one shouldn’t be able to detect the difference between two brush strokes for example where the color changes gradually.
In 1860’s and 70’s
• An group of artists challenge the Academy with their painting subjects and techniques.
• In 1863 there is a separate exhibition for the vast amount of art rejected by the jury. The Academy’s domination starts to crumble.
• The paintings in the new style could be just about anything. No real rules were set for the subject.
– Mostly about landscapes and people doing common, everyday things.– A nice looking play between light and shadow could easily be a reason for a
painting.– A characteristic of many of these paintings is the aim to capture the moment.
• The colors were painted as rays of light – even shadows.– The colors were considered as single rays of light that hit the eye.
Manet: Olympia
In 1870’s and 80’s
• The first Impressionist exhibition in 1871.
• The movement started to fade away in the 1880’s: some of the impressionists thought they had got what they wanted from the style and started to look for new ideas.
• One of the art movements that followed Impressionism is Neo-Impressionism. It was developed by a few former Impressionists.
• The other name for Neo-Impressionism is Pointillism.
WHAT IS IMPRESSIONISM?
“…a mere impression of a sunrise...!”-Louis Leroy
Painting themes
• Much like Realism: Commoners, landscapes, people doing normal everyday things.– No classical posturing in uncomfortable positions: “Be normal!”
• Capturing the moment.– Camera was instrumental in developing this theme. People half out of
the picture in the Impressionist paintings were so because they were seen thus before in photographs.
• No strict rules. Paint what you see and like.
• Painting at the scene (no airy landscape paintings done inside buildings in artificial light).
Painting techniques
• Capture the moment – paint fast!
• What you see is not reality, which is nice. Paint it.– What is not important is not shown.– People are sometimes deformed – especially in later works.– Sometimes the colors in Impressionist paintings look very weird.
• Bending of the rules– Using the camera– Not painting outside even when painting landscapes.– Coming back to the same spot at the same time the next day.
• Painting style evolved into Pointillism…
Pointillism
• The Impressionists painted the colors as rays of light. The style requires more from a spectator: the painting is to be watched from a distance where the brain does the work of mixing the colors.
• The technique was inspired by Eugenè Chevreul’s scientific studies of colours and their use.
• Depending on the source, either Camille Pisarro or Georges Seurat and Paul Signac refined this technique from brush strokes to even sized dots of pure color.
Monet: Parliament
Painting fast to capture the moment
The use of different color strokes
Degas: A dancer on the stage
Ordinary people. Show only what is important
Degas: Absinth
Monet: Pond
Colors are not necessary lifelike
Pointillism
Seurat: La Maria
IMPRESSIONISMIN
TODAY’S MEDIA
Techniques
• Pointillism– raster image: TV, Computer screen, Led screens (for example the huge
screens in rock festivals and sport events), Printing…
• What you see is important.– Blurred background / foreground for example in movies and
photographs.
• Impressionism became extremely popular, although during the movement’s lifetime it wasn’t appreciated.– Some of the cool effects you make into your pictures, for example in
Adobe Photoshop (Filter/Pixelate/Pointillize…) are Impressionistic.
Themes• Did Impressionism affect the content in media?
– What if there hadn’t been Impressionism?
– Would Realism have done the trick?
– Impressionists did break the Academy’s domination over what was considered as fine art.
• The ordinary things are the themes.– In photographs and movies are often about “ordinary” things.
– Example: NYPD Blue’s camera sweeps are impressions of the scene.
– Were there theatre plays or novels where the hero was the underdog (just about any Bruce Willis’s character) instead of some religious figure or a noble (like in Hamlet)?
• Did the politics of 20’th century get affected by some art movements’ ideals?
Questions…
…wait until the opponent has said his piece!
THANK YOU!