Expressionism Until Cubism: Knowing the Schools of Fine Arts

“Art is a form whose expression and appearance never deviate from reality and art is imitation of nature” — Aristotle

Art is beauty with a positive purpose to make the viewer feel in happiness. Art has various kinds, one of which is fine art. Fine art is a branch of art. Various kinds of works of art have been widely spread and adorn human life today. Fine art is an art that is used to produce a work in a two-dimensional or three-dimensional form. This art form can be enjoyed by the sense of sight and felt through the sense of touch. The difference between two-dimensional and three-dimensional art lies only in the media and how to enjoy it.

An expert in two-dimensional art from France, La Mery, explained that art is a symbolic vision of expression in a higher and more beautiful form and form which is neutralized into a beautiful form as a form of self-expression and emotion. Works of art can be enjoyed through the senses of sight (visual) and touch. Fine art usually makes use of the elements of line, point, shape, color, texture, and volume.

Fine art is included in pure art, namely a form of art that is created by prioritizing the element of expression of the soul of the maker (artist) without mixing it with certain functions or uses. Fine art is specially created to be enjoyed based on its aesthetic and artistic merit. Freedom of expression is an important thing in creating pure art, because it does not have any attachment to one particular thing. The art group of this pure art is painting.

Painting is a form of art that has two dimensions. Painting is an art that has an old age, as evidenced by the presence of scratches on the cave walls in prehistoric times. According to sources, initially, the scratches were made for ritual purposes. Later, painting developed with the emergence of various genres such as cubism, naturalist, and realistic. Based on this, it will explain some of the schools of art created by their respective creators. Anything? Let’s look at the following explanation.

Types of Fine Arts

Art creates beauty. Since ancient times, beauty is something that humans seek. Initially, nature was made the standard of beauty by humans, then they imitated the compositions that exist in nature to be applied in the form of works of art that they made. When the beauty of nature is not enough, then humans try to improve the standard of beauty, humans begin to develop alternative standards that are considered to exceed nature. At the beginning of the 20th century, new art forms and art concepts emerged that were against the traditional values ​​of the past. These forms are described as follows.

1. Expressionism

Expressionism more commonly known as art that expresses deep emotions. The word expressionism implies a flow of art that describes inner feelings and sensations that arise from experiences that are received not only by the five senses, but also by one’s soul. Expressionism is also defined as the freedom to distort shapes and colors to produce emotions or sensations from within which are usually associated with violence or tragedy.

Quoted from the journal entitled: Implementation of Expressionism in Architectural Works, Expressionism is divided into 2 periods. Expressionism I is a movement inherent in the irrational taste in humans. This movement is influenced by modern Avant Garde architects who apply the flow of futurism and has a relationship with the flow of Suprematism and Russian Constructivism where these two schools both discuss irrational space and the materials used in buildings have similarities.

Then came the flow of Expressionism II which became the forerunner of the new modern architecture. This flow arose because of a conflict in Expressionism. In Expressionism II, the buildings have begun to use factory materials and have begun to apply modern architectural ideas, namely Form Follow Function, Less is More, Ornament is a Crime and so on. After modern architecture, the Post Modern school also emerged, namely deconstruction which also has a relationship with expressionism.

2. Romanticism

Quoted from the journal entitled Philosophy of Western Art, Romanticism is a rebellion against the Neo-Classical flow. Jean Jacques Rousseau invites back to nature, as a human being who not only has thoughts but also has feelings and emotions. Paintings with a romantic style tend to show a hall that is related to one’s feelings (strongly opposed in Neoclassicalism), exotic, longing for the past, which is used for the feelings of the viewer so that beauty and handsomeness are always depicted.

The characteristics of the Romantic flow are; (1) The painting contains a powerful and emotional story, (2) Full of motion and dynamics, (3) The colors are contrasting and lively, (4) The composition is dynamic, (5) Contains bitterness and touching feelings, (6) The awesomeness exceeds reality . Then the characters include: (1) Eugene Delacroix, (2) Theodore Gericault, (3) Jean Baptiste, (4) Jean Francois Millet. Furthermore, the figure who carried out the rebellion and first planted the banner of romanticism was Teodore Gericault (1791–1824) with his work entitled “Rakit Medusa”. Romanticism comes from the French “Roman” (story), so this genre always describes a story about a great deed or a terrible tragedy.

3. Realism

The flow of realism is the flow of real / reality. The painters are interested in real reality and apply it, depicting everyday reality without giving an atmosphere outside of reality, without animating with romantic feelings. Arifin in his journal stated that, in fact, realism is a painting style that depicts a world without illusions without using appreciation in discovering the world. This is as stated by the realist Gustave Courbet “Show me an angel and I will paint it”.

Quoted from the journal written by Alfath Dwi Isnanto, Realism is a type of art that shows things exactly as they appear in life. It began in the 18th century, but the greatest Realist era was in the mid-19th century. Realists Most are from France, but there are some famous American painters who are Realists as well.

4. Naturalism

Quoted from a journal written by Bryan Dimas in 2016, the flow of naturalism in fine art is an art that emphasizes honesty with the subject without using imagination. Like a photographic work of art, naturalism is created without any elements of falsehood and without going through the editing process. This school does not acknowledge the existence of unreasonable, exotic, and supernatural elements. Some sources say that the flow of naturalism and realism has a slight difference, namely the flow of naturalism is slightly added to make it more beautiful. In the visual arts, naturalism is the accurate depiction of life, perspective, light, and colour. Artwork of this genre can also emphasize good and bad/dirty such as social realism or regionalism.

5. Cubism

Cubism is a modern painting that is widely made. Cubism paintings are paintings that should not look real, Cubism artists use geometric shapes to show what they are trying to paint. At first Cubism used the colors gray, brown, green, and yellow. After 1914, the Cubists began to use bright colors. Cubism was the beginning of the abstract and non-objective style of art.

Those are some of the types of art that exist. Of course, each genre has its own unique purpose and specificity. Well, now you know some of the art styles that exist? If you are interested in starting to paint, you can adjust it according to the type of flow described above! Hopefully this article can be useful and invite all of your friends to start learning to paint!