Lesson 2- Artworks in the 20th and 21st Centuries

The showing of the works of C’ezanne, Van Gogh and other painters signaled the opening of a new era in the development of modern art. A number of painters formed themselves into a group called the “Fauves” or “Wild Beasts”, headed by Henri Matisse. These painters seemed to have painted with great enthusiasm and passion. Their artworks are characterized by strong colors, dynamic brushwork, and expressive depth of their pictures. These evoked a fantastical, joyous world of heightened emotion and color.

Fauvism was a movement of rebellion against the rigid realism of academic art. Paul Gauguin is often associated with the Fauves.

The melancholic, sensual, and beautiful Polynesian woman reaches out to the viewer through the vibrancy of her bright colors and heavy outlines. Look at the traditional pose the artist used, he avoided the usual rules of western art. In this artwork, the forms are simple, the colors clash, and there is no depth or perspective. Gauguin was among the first to use the color for purely decorative or emotional purposes. His use of colors and his simplified and nonnaturalistic style of painting had made him one of the most important contributors to Modern art.

Another painter who has known as “Fauves” or “Wild Beasts” due to the primitive savagery of his style was, Henri Matisse.

The flurry of primary colors dominates this dazzling painting of the interior of the room with a woman setting a table. The entire surface is harmonized into a vibrant, unified pattern of pure color that has been skillfully integrated into the structural composition, saturating the room. The tablecloth merges with the wall, and the forms have been completely flattened, distorted, and simplified. This enhances the lyrical flow of the ornamental forms and rainbow-like colors. Matisse has used colors as a mean of expression. He has deliberately mocked the conventional rules of drawing and perspective.