Violence and expressionism

Résumé du document

Expressionism is an avant-garde movement in which violence is everywhere in themes, in forms, in the expression of the artist in general. We can define violence by aggressive facts, language immoderation, brutality and provocation. When we talk about violence in art, the violence is not necessarily a conflict between two or more people. Expressionism gives images of fear, suffering and anxiety. It breaks with the other movements like impressionism, naturalism and symbolism by becoming aware of a subjective identity and singularity of people who are very alone. We can question the measure in which violence in expressionism is the expression of the inner ego of the artist. The art critic, Nicolaï Pounine, considered expressionism as the first trend of the avant-garde. Indeed, expressionism represents the expression of the ego of the artist. In the next avant-gardes, the artist will create a new world. Actually, in expressionism, the artist does not create a new world like Salvador Dali will do, but he describes in his works, the world of the ego. Art in expressionism is considered as « le domaine inexpugnable de l'homme intérieur, royaume des pulsions instinctives et originelles menacées d'étouffement par le progrès technique autant que par la culture de masse » . In expressionism, the artist will express his violent grievances, suffering, and his revolt to the modern world.

Extraits

[...] We can find violence in forms that the artists use. In painting, the main use for expression of violence is the colour, which we can see with Soutine and Schiele for example. The red colour is often used to express the violence like blood, the inner flesh and the suffering. Other colours are used too, like the black, the brown, the orange the most. Artists use hard angles and lines to represent violence too. For instance, a lot of paintings from Soutine represent pieces of meat in still life, like in the work Scratched Beef[6]. [...]

[...] This violence reflects an inner expression about the idea of body destruction. We can understand that the violence of corrosion expresses the fear of suffering and destruction of human being. After 1914, a lot of expressionists make works about death or illnesses. One of the most famous expressionist writer, Georg Trakl, wrote de l'homme, la forme décomposée”[5]. This quotation of Georg Trakl expresses very well the idea of the expressionists which represent decomposed bodies, sometimes by a division of the body and sometimes by the rotting of the body itself. [...]

[...] Murnau 1922 Gérard Conio, Les Avant-gardes, entre métaphysique et histoire (Entretiens avec Philippe Sers), Editions l'Age d'Homme p See appendix Gérard Conio, Les Avant-gardes, entre métaphysique et histoire (Entretiens avec Philippe Sers), Editions l'Age d'Homme p See appendix Georg Trakl, Œuvres Complètes, Gallimard See appendix Le cinéma expressionniste allemand, Splendeurs d'une collection La cinémathèque française, Editions de la Martinière Siegfried Kracauer, Notes on the planned History of German film, quoted by Volker Breidecker in Siegfried Kracauer/Erwin Panofsky : Ein Briefwechsel p17. See appendix J. M. Palmier in D. Anzieu, R. Chemana, M. Gagnebin, G. Lanteri-Laura, Art et Fantasme, “L'or d'Atalante”, Champ Vallon, p.76. [...]

[...] We can question in which measure violence in expressionism is the expression of the inner ego of the artist. The art critic, Nicolaï Pounine, considered expressionism as the first trend of the avant-garde. Indeed, expressionism represents the expression of the ego of the artist. In the next avant- gardes, the artist will create a new world. Actually in the expressionism, the artist does not create a new world like Salvador Dali will do, but he describes in his works the world of the ego. [...]

[...] The emotions, instincts, drives are expressed by expressionist artists in order to reveal the profound and intense ego. This ego manifests itself with violence, because of its intensity. Violence against artists theirselves In addition, expressionists express violence against theirselves. Violence in expressionism is also a break with the past artistic movements. Even if there were a form of violence in other movements like with Goya or Géricault, expressionist violence does not want to imitate violence, but to express an inner violence. The violence in art has changed. Violence is not suggestive anymore but it is showed. [...]