Fauvism: Early Twentieth-Century Art Movements
Henri Matisse and Fauvist Influences on Modern Art
Henri Matisse led a small but powerful group of French artists into the 20th Century by introducing Fauvism in 1905. The group painted primarily for the sake of color with no agenda and no formal theories, against the grain of Impressionist ideals emphasizing realism and representation.
As a student at École des Beaux-Arts in Paris under the tutelage of professor and painter Gustave Moreau, Matisse and contemporaries André Derain and Maurice Vlaminck found inspiration in their mentor’s leadership toward emotion and expressive qualities in art. Georges Braque and Raoul Dufy, among others, were influenced by the group’s premise later on.
Origins of Fauvism
A number of factors contributed to the strong, short lived advance of Fauvism. Major exhibitions in the early 1900s exposed young painters for the first time to the work of influential artists like Vincent Van Gogh and Paul Cezanne, whose palettes were limited only by their imaginations. Many historians credit the Fauvists for ushering in the era of Modern Art, forming a bridge between Post-Impressionism in the late 1800’s and Cubism that took hold by 1908.
All art is a product of its ancestry, and Fauvism was no exception. Van Gogh, who early on molded the sympathetic realism of Jean-François Millet with the Japonism of Far East ukiyo-e prints, in turn influenced Matisse, who also felt the weight of Cezanne’s impressionism and Moreau’s symbolism inspiring his hand toward an explosion of color.
Fauvism’s Debut
The first Fauvist exhibition at the Salon d’Automne in 1905 shocked and appalled its attendees, jurists, and critics, who failed to understand or outright feared the rationale behind such bold expression. The untamed, erratically colored paintings were in direct opposition to a Renaissance statue by Donatello in the center of the room. The derogatory name they inherited from critic Louis Vauxcelles, “the Fauves”, is French for wild beasts, and such was his reaction upon viewing the paintings himself.
Matisse in particular drew strong reactions for the garish tones he used to paint his subjects. When they saw the menagerie of contrasting colors that lit his wife Amelie’s face in Woman with a Hat, they were not amused. The Salon judges, in response to the public’s reaction, even suggested Matisse withdraw the painting out of respect. Only the interest of Gertrude Stein, an American writer and proponent of the avant-garde, gave the movement any sense of momentum.
Strong, short brush strokes dominated the Fauvist canvas, to the detriment of its intended theme. The group’s art was characterized by thick bands of color that simplified the composition to its most primary form. Matisse embraced color as a substitute for fine details in his paintings. An example of this concept is seen in a later portrait of his wife more commonly known as The Green Stripe, for its prominent band of green paint that divides the hemispheres of her face.
Epitaph
By 1907, after two short years of concerted effort, Fauvism’s desire waned, falling victim to more formative styles sparked by Cezanne and, later, Picasso. Even so, Fauvism continued a cycle of art influence that motivated artists toward German Expressionism and Cubism as World War I approached. Even Matisse’s work evolved, returning at first to a neo-classic style before ill health left him experimenting with the Blue Nudes series of collages shortly before his death in 1954.
The Green Line, Henri Matisse (1905)
|
The Turning Road, L´Estaque; Andre Derain (1906)
|
What do you think about this article?
More in Visual & Performing Arts
Latest Articles