Art is one of the most ancient aspects of history and there has been its evolvement over the years. Many of the artists in history use their art works having specific objectives and the main one being to express their thoughts. Art work varies widely but in our case we will look at painting works. We will not look at it in general terms but we will be specific and look at the movement that came up of post-impressionism and how Van Gogh and Gauguin used their artistic work as a reaction against the concerns that were raised by impressionists in regards to the naturalistic depiction of colour and light. In addition, we will look at the influence that post-impressionism movement of art had in the 20th century.
Two of the most renowned post-impressionists include Van Gogh and Gauguin. These artists used art through their movement of post-impressionism to express their thoughts. They used several aspects in their paintings inclusive of pointillism, symbolism, and synthetism. Pointillism is a technique that employed the use of tiny dots of colour on the sides of a canvas. This proved to be an interesting aspect of art since little paint dots came together to form intricate pictures.Van Gogh used pointillism, that had been used by an earlier post impressionist artist, George Seurat but instead of using the dots, he used multidirectional dashes, creating a great sense of energy in his paintings. The surface of his works was textured, never seen before. The paintings were also vibrant, with vibrating colours, achieved by using complementary colours next to each other. Synthetism on the other hand involved the artistic choice of colour, form, and line. Gauguin is known for synthetism and symbolism He worked with stained glass, folk art and Japanese prints, with his shapes outlined like Egyptian, Medieval or Oriental art. His forms were primitive, simplified and flattened into decorative shapes. Gauguin used bright colours and line as an expression of his feelings; in some way depicting a search for religious experience. These artists conveyed their feeling through the use of intense colours and brushstrokes. They also distorted the subjects form as well as its natural colours so as to express more vividly their emotional response to the subject. Post-impressionism also employed the capturing of the geometric form and structure of their subject.
Post-impressionism had a great impact or influence in the 20th century. It was considered to be the advent of modernism in the early 20th century. It saw the rejection of impressionism and the artists employed new techniques. Gauguin for example employed the use of sensuous and exotic colour harmonies in order to portray the poetic images of the Tahitians. On the other hand, van Gogh exercised the use of curving, and vibrant lines of colour. This is in contrast to impressionism which used short brushstrokes in painting. Post-impressionism is therefore seen to be an evolvement of art during the 20th century from impressionism. It also brought about the rise of Cubism as well as Fauvism. These two aspects of art sought to evoke emotions through the use of colour and line.
In conclusion, post-impressionism is seen to be a step to modernism and it came about as a rejection of impressionism. Van Gogh and Paul Gauguin are seen to be two of the most profound artists in post-impressionism and they used their art to portray their ideologies. Post-impressionism therefore brought an end to the limited aim of impressionism which was based strictly on objective recording of nature in regards to fugitive effects of light and colour.
Works Cited
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Spielvogel, Jackson J. Western Civilization. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, 2014.
Spielvogel, Jackson J. Western Civilization: Volume C: Since 1789. New York: Greenwood Publishers, 2014.
